The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
