The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
