The thrilling extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various tongues.
