World Series Game 7 Draws 51 Million Audience Members In the United States, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The nail-biting extended contest where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 edition showdown between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday epic game averaged 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, Game 5 was eighth, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it drew 12 million viewers. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – in which World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in Japan.
Series Totals and Trends
The full seven-game series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US average was 16.1M. The overall World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 broadcasting partners in 16 different tongues.