The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
