The exciting extended clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined over 50 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series drew 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.
