The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
