The exciting 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game involving the 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 attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
