The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast 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 complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
