The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
