The nail-biting extra-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
