The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51M watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
