The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 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 previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
