The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a total 51M spectators across the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes 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 matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% increase over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 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 frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match series drew 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total US 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 over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.