In 2025 World Series Game 7 viewership beat NBA finals game 7 by 10 million viewers
November 3, 2025
In 2025 World Series Game 7 viewership beat NBA finals game 7 by 10 million viewers
47 comments
and the World Series game 7 was on a Saturday and 40% of the audience lives in Canada.
…as in despite these headwinds, it was still the biggest US audience for a World Series game in like 6 years.
This is without Japan and Canada’s numbers, too, right?
Shh, all the sports networks never stopped talking about two small market teams in the finals and the lower ratings. Don’t get them all riled up again.
ESPN has given people the perception that the NBA has near equal viewership with the NFL, but it doesn’t even surpass MLB. It’s also proof that people don’t care or watch ESPN as much these days too.
NBA is such a star driven league. People root for players more than teams. Shai and Haliburton or any of the new stars for that matter don’t have the same draw as LeBron, Curry and KD. MLB does a good job pushing Judge and Ohtani without drowning out the teams imo.
To be expected when the NBA is very much a highlights-based sport.
I can’t wait to see what the numbers look like when the international numbers come in as well. What a series if you wanted to introduce anyone to baseball
I think full data will come out tomorrow. Curious what the average breaks down to be, and how much the extras spike was.
Who knew that LA would draw more people than two flyover states
Nice. I love watching both sports for different reasons, I don’t need to shit on one to big up the other lol
Ruining baseball
If the NBA finals had been Seattle vs Indiana it probably would’ve had higher viewership ratings.
People do remember Baseball is the second most popular sport in the US right? NBA has better PR it’s basically a social media event so you hear and read about it more, but baseball is still more popular.
A big factor here is that the WS had two big market teams, including the team with by far the biggest star in the sport that even the most casual of viewers know. While the Finals was awesome to watch for hardcore NBA fans last year, casuals are just not going to be that interested in an OKC-Indiana matchup featuring SGA and Haliburton
It’s an unfortunate reality of having a final with small market teams. Nothing against it in terms of earning it as both those teams deserved that final and have quality talent.
Tbh I stopped watch the second haliburton and got hurt. Also OKC and Indiana don’t have no where near the attraction as LA and Toronto.
NBA is a much more global sport but they’re losing their ground locally. And baseball is so much more unpredictable that you can have more competitive games.
The universal DH, pitch clock, and ghost runner during the regular season have all helped. Sub 3 hour games are the norm now and they used to be outliers before all the changes.
Most people forgot Oklahoma City of all places has a basketball team.
NBA is 🗑️
NBA has the worst product out the big 4 leagues in the USA
And people claim they’re anti-dynasty
I had no interest in watching SGA flop himself to his first chip. Dude is an incredible player but I don’t enjoy watching his style of play.
NBA puts out the worst product by far and I was a diehard NBA fan. Baseball’s rule changes have made the product better and the game is rebounding.
I wish the NBA would make some changes to make it fun to watch again.
Gotta consider the markets but interesting to see nonetheless
Hate or love the teams, this World Series was amazing for baseball! I hope we’ve earned some new fans!
WBC is gonna be huge.
Not as huge of ratings as 2016’s or 2017’s Game 7, both were played on Wednesday.
i never understood the appeal of basketball, you can literally turn on the last 2 minutes of any game and you will either be able to tell who is going to win or it will be the most exciting part, why watch anything but the last 2 minutes that are oh wait yes 2 minutes chalk full of timeouts and intentional fouls to exploit the clock rules
God, remember when people on this sub swore up and down that the pitch clock and universal DH was killing the sport?
I guarantee you that game 7 probably made about 5 million new baseball fans.
And I spent next month’s rent money on a ticket in the 500s for game 7 on Saturday. No regrets!!! GO JAYS!!!
Nobody wanted to see flop city finals.
That’s because we didn’t have Ohtani vs Vladdy shooting free throws for 3 hours.
When you get players like Shai all he does is gets free throws that shit is boring
Players union should use that number in every salary cap negotiation because the NBA salary minimum is 140 million. Thats the starting point. Not 90-100 like its being floated.
Can you imagine Bob Nutting paying 140 million? Because I cant. Which should kill all talk of it.
And people are saying that the Dodgers are ruining baseball LOL
I’m never going to watch a nba game with shai in it. Imagine if MLB let players get hit on purpose or runs were awarded because of contact between players
To be fair, OKC and Indiana combined is still like half of LA’s media market.
This was a great World Series. I could tell because everyone at work was talking about it and usually I’m the only annoying one talking baseball all year every year 😎
Baseball is still the greatest sport oat
The Dodgers are saving baseball
man fuck okc
I will say, the format of the world series is way better. Having 1-day breaks for travel days and 0-day breaks for non-travel days makes it so much easier to maintain investment in the series. The games also lined up well with days and time slots where there wasn’t much else going on.
I don’t know that the NBA can match that schedule pace since games are so much more physical, but it is definitely a hindrance.
Game 7 of the NBA Finals ended in the first quarter, unfortunately.
If Halliburton doesn’t get injured, it probably ranks higher.
Basketball is such a boring product at this point. 50% free throws and the other half is free lay ups
Imagine watching nothing but free throws and calling it the finals
47 comments
and the World Series game 7 was on a Saturday and 40% of the audience lives in Canada.
…as in despite these headwinds, it was still the biggest US audience for a World Series game in like 6 years.
This is without Japan and Canada’s numbers, too, right?
Shh, all the sports networks never stopped talking about two small market teams in the finals and the lower ratings. Don’t get them all riled up again.
ESPN has given people the perception that the NBA has near equal viewership with the NFL, but it doesn’t even surpass MLB. It’s also proof that people don’t care or watch ESPN as much these days too.
NBA is such a star driven league. People root for players more than teams. Shai and Haliburton or any of the new stars for that matter don’t have the same draw as LeBron, Curry and KD. MLB does a good job pushing Judge and Ohtani without drowning out the teams imo.
To be expected when the NBA is very much a highlights-based sport.
I can’t wait to see what the numbers look like when the international numbers come in as well. What a series if you wanted to introduce anyone to baseball
I think full data will come out tomorrow. Curious what the average breaks down to be, and how much the extras spike was.
Who knew that LA would draw more people than two flyover states
Nice. I love watching both sports for different reasons, I don’t need to shit on one to big up the other lol
Ruining baseball
If the NBA finals had been Seattle vs Indiana it probably would’ve had higher viewership ratings.
People do remember Baseball is the second most popular sport in the US right? NBA has better PR it’s basically a social media event so you hear and read about it more, but baseball is still more popular.
A big factor here is that the WS had two big market teams, including the team with by far the biggest star in the sport that even the most casual of viewers know. While the Finals was awesome to watch for hardcore NBA fans last year, casuals are just not going to be that interested in an OKC-Indiana matchup featuring SGA and Haliburton
It’s an unfortunate reality of having a final with small market teams. Nothing against it in terms of earning it as both those teams deserved that final and have quality talent.
Tbh I stopped watch the second haliburton and got hurt. Also OKC and Indiana don’t have no where near the attraction as LA and Toronto.
NBA is a much more global sport but they’re losing their ground locally. And baseball is so much more unpredictable that you can have more competitive games.
The universal DH, pitch clock, and ghost runner during the regular season have all helped. Sub 3 hour games are the norm now and they used to be outliers before all the changes.
Most people forgot Oklahoma City of all places has a basketball team.
NBA is 🗑️
NBA has the worst product out the big 4 leagues in the USA
And people claim they’re anti-dynasty
I had no interest in watching SGA flop himself to his first chip. Dude is an incredible player but I don’t enjoy watching his style of play.
NBA puts out the worst product by far and I was a diehard NBA fan. Baseball’s rule changes have made the product better and the game is rebounding.
I wish the NBA would make some changes to make it fun to watch again.
Gotta consider the markets but interesting to see nonetheless
Hate or love the teams, this World Series was amazing for baseball! I hope we’ve earned some new fans!
WBC is gonna be huge.
Not as huge of ratings as 2016’s or 2017’s Game 7, both were played on Wednesday.
i never understood the appeal of basketball, you can literally turn on the last 2 minutes of any game and you will either be able to tell who is going to win or it will be the most exciting part, why watch anything but the last 2 minutes that are oh wait yes 2 minutes chalk full of timeouts and intentional fouls to exploit the clock rules
God, remember when people on this sub swore up and down that the pitch clock and universal DH was killing the sport?
I guarantee you that game 7 probably made about 5 million new baseball fans.
And I spent next month’s rent money on a ticket in the 500s for game 7 on Saturday. No regrets!!! GO JAYS!!!
Nobody wanted to see flop city finals.
That’s because we didn’t have Ohtani vs Vladdy shooting free throws for 3 hours.
When you get players like Shai all he does is gets free throws that shit is boring
Players union should use that number in every salary cap negotiation because the NBA salary minimum is 140 million. Thats the starting point. Not 90-100 like its being floated.
Can you imagine Bob Nutting paying 140 million? Because I cant. Which should kill all talk of it.
And people are saying that the Dodgers are ruining baseball LOL
I’m never going to watch a nba game with shai in it. Imagine if MLB let players get hit on purpose or runs were awarded because of contact between players
To be fair, OKC and Indiana combined is still like half of LA’s media market.
This was a great World Series. I could tell because everyone at work was talking about it and usually I’m the only annoying one talking baseball all year every year 😎
Baseball is still the greatest sport oat
The Dodgers are saving baseball
man fuck okc
I will say, the format of the world series is way better. Having 1-day breaks for travel days and 0-day breaks for non-travel days makes it so much easier to maintain investment in the series. The games also lined up well with days and time slots where there wasn’t much else going on.
I don’t know that the NBA can match that schedule pace since games are so much more physical, but it is definitely a hindrance.
Game 7 of the NBA Finals ended in the first quarter, unfortunately.
If Halliburton doesn’t get injured, it probably ranks higher.
Basketball is such a boring product at this point. 50% free throws and the other half is free lay ups
Imagine watching nothing but free throws and calling it the finals