The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
