The exciting extra-inning clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a aggregate 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. MLB announced this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday epic contest secured over 27 million audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached over 16 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after 2017.
MLB reported that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 various languages.
