The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
