The exciting 11-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
