The exciting extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
