The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English 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 last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
