The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
