The nail-biting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, 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 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
