The exciting extra-inning clash where the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English program in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
