The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
