The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, 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 stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
