The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
