The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
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 since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
