The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
