Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
