Fall Classic Game 7 Draws 51 Million Audience Members In the US, Canadian and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million 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 Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
