The exciting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement over the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game finished in 13th place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series averaged 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
