The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
