World Series finale was the largest international broadcast in baseball history

Major League Baseball (MLB) executives say the 2025 World Series was the largest international broadcast operation in the sport’s history, following a rise in interest from both Canadian and Japanese audiences.

According to data from Sportsnet and preliminary figures from Fox, an average of roughly 37 million people watched game seven between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers. This includes 10.9 million viewers across Canada. According to Sportsnet’s parent company, Rogers Communications, this was the largest game in the network’s history, with 18.5 million Canadians tuning in at some point to the decisive championship game.

The Toronto Star noted that the audience is likely larger in Japan, which recorded higher viewership for several earlier World Series games; in Game 1, Japan’s average viewership was 11.4 million, compared to 7 million in Canada.

According to the Toronto Star, a league source who spoke anonymously said early projections show that the series’ global audience could be the largest since 1991, when the Minnesota Twins walked off the Atlanta Braves in seven games.

According to MLB’s senior vice president of global media partnerships, Dominick Balsano, the league’s Japanese viewership had been growing steadily for decades. Still, Japanese stars like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, etc. have “Taken it to the next level,” with Balsano also adding that the Japanese audience is “unprecedented right now.”

As part of broadcasting deals with the MLB, Sportsnet was allowed to do its own Blue Jays-oriented broadcast. Japanese broadcaster NHK was allowed to do its own Japanese-oriented broadcast. Ryan Zander, MLB’s senior vice president of broadcasting, said he easily spotted over 100 cameras, compared to a regional game, which typically has seven to 10.

Source: The Toronto Star

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