The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
