The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
