The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
