The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
