The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
