The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
