The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
