World Series Game 7 Captures 51M Viewers Across the US, Canada and Japanese Regions.
The exciting extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a total 51M spectators in the US, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball reported this is the highest-rated World Series Game 7 since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox Sports channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Dodgers and Astros, which drew over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent increase over the previous finale featuring the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the climactic game drew over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English-language program in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Series Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series recorded 15.71M viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete MLB Postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09 million watchers, an eight percent increase compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was televised in over 200 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
