The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
