The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
