The nail-biting extended clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
