The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
