The nail-biting extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast 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 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
