The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
