The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
