The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US average was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
