The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
