The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
