Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series Game 7 is most-watched MLB game since 2017

A World Series with an appetite for the dramatic ended up scoring the most-watched MLB game in eight years.

Game 7 of the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays averaged nearly 26 million viewers on Saturday night. According to Nielsen’s fast-national measurements, 25.98 million people watched the Dodgers secure their second consecutive World Series title across Fox, Fox Deportes, and Fox’s streaming platforms.

Saturday’s audience is the largest for a World Series game since the Astros beat the Dodgers in Game 7 of the 2017 Fall Classic, which drew 28.29 million viewers on a Wednesday night. The Dodgers’ win secured a larger audience than Game 7s in 2019 (Nationals-Astros, 23.01 million viewers), 2014 (Giants-Royals, 23.52 million viewers), and 2011 (Cardinals-Rangers, 25.40 million viewers), while falling well short of the Cubs’ historic World Series Game 7 win in 2016 (40.05 million viewers). It was also the most-watched non-football broadcast in 2025, beating out the Academy Awards in March (19.7 million viewers).

The Fox-only number for Saturday clocked in at 25.45 million viewers, meaning about half-a-million watched between Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming services. On Fox, the audience peaked at 31.54 million viewers in the 11:30 p.m. ET quarter-hour, coinciding with the bottom of the ninth inning.

It should be noted, Nielsen’s fast national measurements are panel-only and do not include the company’s new “Big Data” methodology, which tends to increase viewership figures for live sports. Final measurements are expected to be available on Tuesday. Viewership for Friday’s Game 6 is not immediately available, so series-long averages will also come later this week.

While the series certainly delivered on the field, no doubt helping draw an outsized interest in its rubber match, MLB wasn’t exactly given ideal circumstances on paper. For one, Toronto’s participation eliminates a second home market in the United States. That certainly helped combined North American viewership, as the Canadian audience tuned in at a higher-than-normal rate. But the Blue Jays’ involvement did nothing to help Nielsen’s U.S.-only measurements.

Second, MLB’s new World Series schedule had Game 7 scheduled for a Saturday for the first time since 1931. Historically, Fridays and Saturdays are among the weakest for television viewership in the United States. In total, four of the seven World Series games were played on those days. The Friday and Saturday problem has partially been remedied by Nielsen’s introduction and expansion of out-of-home viewing measurements, but it remains true that fewer people are generally watching television on those nights.

So for Game 7 to average nearly 26 million viewers, peaking at over 30 million, on a Saturday night is extremely encouraging.

When comparing to Game 7s in other sports, Saturday’s contest holds up well. Game 7 of the Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals earlier this year averaged just 16.35 million viewers. The second most-recent NBA Finals to go the distance, Warriors-Cavaliers in 2016, averaged 31.02 million viewers for Game 7. Of course, MLB well out-rates any Stanley Cup Final Game 7, the most recent of which drew 7.66 million viewers for Oilers-Panthers in 2024.

Clearly, the quality of the games and some of the star power on the Dodgers (namely, Shohei Ohtani) were enough for this World Series to end on a higher note than any baseball telecast in the past eight years.

The past two World Series have provided a mini-resurgence for MLB, with last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series performing considerably better than the several seasons prior, especially compared to the historically low 2023 series between the Diamondbacks and Rangers. So goes the ebb and flow of sports viewership. It’s never as bad as it seems in the down times, nor as good as it seems in the high times.

Make no mistake, MLB and Fox will rightfully enjoy this one, and hope for an equally compelling World Series next year.