The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million watchers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English program in the country after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7M and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest playoff performance after the 2017 season.
MLB reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
