The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
