The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
