The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership 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 program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
