The nail-biting 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
