The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP 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 Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
