The exciting extended matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
