The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
