The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
