The thrilling extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51M watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-match World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
