The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
