The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
