The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
