The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
