The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
