The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
