The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
