The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 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 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
