The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after 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 came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
