The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language 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 attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
