The exciting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
