The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
