The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
