The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
