The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
