The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
