The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance since the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
