The thrilling extended matchup where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
