The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
