The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as 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 increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
