The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
