The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
