The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
