The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
