The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
