The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
