The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 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 ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
