The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
