The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
