The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per 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 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
