The nail-biting extended clash where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
