The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members 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 additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series averaged 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
