The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
