The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched Fall Classic game after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US viewership was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million watchers, an 8% increase compared to last year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
