The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
