The nail-biting extended contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
