The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M viewers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
