The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
