The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. 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 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
