The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
