The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving 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 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
