The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
