The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 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, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
