The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
