The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
