The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
