The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
