The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as 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 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
