The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
