The exciting 11-inning clash where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance since the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
