The nail-biting 11-inning contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a total 51M spectators in the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth position.
Global Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American average was over 16 million. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.
