The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million viewers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
