The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is 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 sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
