The thrilling extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
