The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
