The thrilling extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
