The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 since the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19 million.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in eighth, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Audience Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6 million watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English broadcast in the country after the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – drew 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American viewership was 16.1 million. The overall World Series average in the Japanese market was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in over 200 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen various tongues.
