The exciting extra-inning contest that saw the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays by one run attracted a total over 50 million spectators across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Astros, which drew 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the last finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed fourth, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game started at 9 p.m. local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six frames – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total US viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M watchers, an eight percent increase over last year and the network’s strongest playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different languages.
