The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.