The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. 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 Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada 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 followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, 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 Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
