The nail-biting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
