The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
