The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
