The thrilling 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M viewers in the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a 2% increase from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached over 16 million. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s best postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen different tongues.
