The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
