The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
