World Series Game 7 Attracts 51 Million Viewers Across the US, Canadian and Japan Markets.
The nail-biting extra-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run attracted a combined 51M watchers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this represents the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew over 11 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience growth for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and the network’s best playoff performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.