Fall Classic Final Game Captures Over 50 Million Viewers Across the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.