The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
