The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
