The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
