Fall Classic Final Game Attracts 51 Million Viewers In the United States, Canadian and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
