The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
