The nail-biting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
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 ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
