The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
