The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
