The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
