Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51 Million Viewers In the US, Canada and Japan Markets.
The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
