The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
