The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
