The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
