The thrilling 11-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
