World Series Final Game Captures 51M Audience Members In the United States, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The thrilling 11-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It additionally stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series drew over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged over 8 million viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different tongues.
