World Series Final Game Draws Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
