The thrilling 11-inning contest where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous 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 years.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
