The nail-biting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
