The thrilling extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
