World Series Final Game Captures Over 50 Million Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 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 and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
