The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
