The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
