The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
