The exciting 11-inning contest that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome the Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the most-watched Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic contest drew over 27 million viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was 7th, the fifth game was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th position.
Global Viewership Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game recorded 11.6 million viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the most-watched English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total US average reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball reported that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
