The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
