The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
