The exciting extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 averaged a aggregate 51 million viewers across the United States, Canadian, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball stated this represents the most-watched World Series Game 7 since the 1991 contest between the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic contest secured 27.33M audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the previous week.
It additionally is the top-rated World Series game after the 2017 edition final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew 29.07M. This represents a 16% improvement over the previous Game 7 featuring the Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked 4th, Game 4 was seventh, the fifth game came in eighth, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the climactic game averaged 11.6 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports channel. This made it the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million viewers. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1M viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages 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 series. This represents the first time since 2015 and ‘16 that the World Series has seen viewership increases for two straight years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on Univision, the total American average reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09 million viewers, an eight percent rise over the previous year and Fox’s strongest playoff performance after 2017.
MLB reported that the Fall Classic was broadcast in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen various tongues.
