The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet 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 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
