The nail-biting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
