The exciting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Television Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a 16% improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game World Series recorded 15.71 million viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded over 8 million viewers, an eight percent rise compared to last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
