The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, 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 averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
