The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.