The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
