The thrilling extended contest where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB stated this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen audience growth for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average was over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
