The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
