The exciting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
