The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
