The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership 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 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
