The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
