The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
