The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
