The thrilling 11-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
