World Series Final Game Captures 51M Viewers In the United States, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full 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 postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
