The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
