Fall Classic Final Game Captures 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
