The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
