The nail-biting 11-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51 million viewers in the US, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday epic game drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports networks, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
International Audience Figures
In Canada, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series recorded 15.71 million viewers on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete US average was over 16 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason ratings since the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various tongues.
