The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
