The thrilling extended clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
