The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
