The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
