The exciting extra-inning contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game secured 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US viewership reached over 16 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 various tongues.
