The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers 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 is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
