The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
