The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
