The thrilling extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
