The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
