The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
