The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
