The thrilling extra-inning clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise over last year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
