The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
