The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
