The nail-biting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
