The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
