The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
