The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
