The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
