The exciting 11-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate over 50 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
