The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
