The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
