The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
