The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
