The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
