The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
