The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
