The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
