The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
