The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51 million spectators across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1M. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
