The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
