The nail-biting extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a aggregate 51 million viewers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it attracted 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average was 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 various languages.
