The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
