The exciting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
