The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic 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 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
