The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M spectators 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 between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
Last Saturday’s memorable contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the last finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M watchers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
