The exciting extra-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game secured over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various languages.