The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
