The exciting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
