The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
