The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
