If you were waiting for America to go gaga over the Los Angeles Dodgers’ wild World Series clash with the Toronto Blue Jays, you were probably in for a salty truth—the buzz simply isn’t there. Sure, Shohei Ohtani is doing Cooperstown-worthy things every other game in the series, but there has been a dip in interest. Even after the game has gone, even now, 2-2 after the Jays managed to bulldoze the Dodgers.

So why did most of the US change the channel and maybe focus on Halloween, while Canada threw maybe a baseball block party, and Japan woke up at sunrise to watch the games?

Dodgers vs Blue Jays- not your classic American rivalry 

The truth is that baseball thrives on rivalry. The mere thought of a Yankee-Red Sox World Series gets the baseball enthusiasts’ blood pumping. Or the Phillies and Astros, too. Not just them, but wasn’t the Yankee-Dodgers clash last season just pure theater too? East vs. West. Broadway lights vs Hollywood flash—it was simply magic. The entire country tuned in to watch two of the biggest baseball clubs go head-to-head. Even Magic Johnson couldn’t help but get ready for the series. 

But replace the Yankees with Toronto, and those juicy storylines suddenly vanish. Now it is more like the Dodgers vs a team from another country, and that familiar “us vs them” tension just evaporates.

Now there is no doubt that the Los Angeles Dodgers fans are all in, but for most casual American watchers, who maybe don’t watch the 162 games, just the end ones, the connection is not the same. Or maybe the thrill is not the same. But Canada has for sure gone wild. Toronto’s 11-4 win in Game 1 of the World Series, for example, drew in 7 million viewers. That’s the most-watched Blue Jays game ever on Sportsnet!

Game 2 of the World Series was not far behind either, averaging 6.6 million with another 502,000 tuning in on French-language TVA Sports. So, plenty have tuned in too. Just maybe not what the league or the hard-core fans imagined.

MLB’s busy basking in the international glory

Now here is the twist—the US ratings have dipped 14% from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees meetup. But with this meetup, the global picture paints a different story. The first two games averaged 12.5 million US viewers compared to the 14.55 million a year ago. But when you add in the audience from Canada and Japan, this turned into MLB’s biggest worldwide showing since the Cubs ended their 108-year drought in 2016!

A combined 32.6 million viewers across all three countries.

Japan’s viewership nearly matched the total of the US, as fans tuned in during breakfast to just watch Ohtani take the field. Baseball didn’t unite just America; it brought for sure the world together. And the craziness can only be seen given that the hashtags trended in Japanese before English could catch up.

When the game won’t end (and the audience can’t hang)

Everyone loves a neck-and-neck game, something that keeps you on the edge of your seat. But a marathon of 18 innings—equalling two games, seven hours—and it was overdone for many. It was dramatic and exhausting, and by the 15th inning, most viewers had waved a white flag. Only the hardcore fans stayed awake.

Sure, Ohtani’s two homers and nine on-base performance were a bliss, but in a series without that classic story of rivalry between two clubs, even his brilliance couldn’t keep the people watching glued to their screens.

Maybe the baseball party just moves

So for now, it seems like the Fall Classic didn’t captivate Americans—but it surely changed venues. The US tuned out a little from MLB, but Canada and Japan turned this into global celebrations. So baseball’s heart is still beating strong, just this time a little louder outside the border!