The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
