The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
