The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
