The nail-biting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various languages.
