The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
