The thrilling extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
