The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
