The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
