Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51M Viewers In the US, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
