The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
