The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
