The exciting extended clash that saw the Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a combined 51M watchers in the US, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game drew 27.33M audience members on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English-language broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series drew 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average was 16.1 million. The total World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase compared to the previous year and the network’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
