The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
