The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
