The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a combined over 50 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached 16.1 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
