The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
