The nail-biting extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
