The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
