The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
