The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
