The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Toronto Blue Jays by one run averaged a total 51M watchers across the United States, Canadian, and Japan markets. MLB stated this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million audience members on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the previous Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and Game 3 finished in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the most-watched English-language program in Canada since the 2010 edition Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million viewers. This came after the previous Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series averaged over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership increases for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an eight percent rise compared to the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason performance after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was televised in 203 nations and regions by forty-four media partners in 16 different languages.
