The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
