The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language 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 attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
