The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
