The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 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, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
