The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
