The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
