The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total over 50 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
