The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
