The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a aggregate over 50 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable game drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started 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 – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American average was over 16 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
