The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
