The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
