The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
