The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
