The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
