The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
