Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51 Million Audience Members Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
