The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
