The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
