The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, 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 recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
