The exciting 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different languages.
