The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
