The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 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 – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
