The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
