The nail-biting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51 million watchers across the US, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB announced this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It also is the top-rated Fall Classic game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% increase compared to the last finale featuring the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, the fourth game was 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in 13th place.
Global Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game averaged over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-game World Series averaged over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic 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 8.09M watchers, an 8% rise over last year and Fox’s strongest playoff ratings since the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen different languages.
