The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
