The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
