The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports 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 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
