The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
