The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
