The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
