The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
