The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
