The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
