The exciting extended contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
