The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
