The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
