The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
