The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
