The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
