The thrilling extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
