The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
