The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 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 averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
