The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
