The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
