The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated 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 viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
