The nail-biting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
