Fall Classic Game 7 Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
