World Series Game 7 Draws Over 50 Million Viewers Across the United States, Canada and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate 51 million watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
