The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
