The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
