World Series Final Game Attracts Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
