The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
