The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
