The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
