The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market 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 rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
