The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, 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 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance since 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
