The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
