The exciting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
