The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
