The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
