The thrilling extra-inning matchup that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays by one run drew a combined 51M viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball announced this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable game drew over 27 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the previous finale featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged over 11 million viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – drew over 13 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Series Averages and Trends
The full seven-match series recorded 15.71M audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two consecutive years.
Counting the opening game telecast on Univision, the complete American viewership reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise over last year and Fox’s best playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 media partners in 16 different tongues.
