The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
