The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 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 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
