The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
