The exciting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
