The exciting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
