The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
