The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
