World Series Game 7 Captures Over 50 Million Audience Members Across the US, Canada and Japan Regions.
The nail-biting extended matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japanese markets. MLB reported this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest averaged over 27 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to ratings data, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally stands as the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent increase compared to the previous finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed 4th, Game 4 ranked 7th, the fifth game came in 8th, and the third game finished in thirteenth place.
Global Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English program in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM local time, it drew 12 million. This followed last Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million viewers on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen audience increases for two straight seasons.
Counting the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the complete US viewership was 16.1M. The overall World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 broadcasting partners in sixteen different tongues.
