The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
