The nail-biting extended matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.
