Fall Classic Final Game Draws 51M Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
