The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington 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 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
