The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
