The exciting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
