The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
