The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
