The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
