The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
