The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American 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 playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.
