The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
