The sport of baseball is riding high after multiple years of ratings and attendance growth and it was more of the same for the 2025 MLB postseason.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second straight championship after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in a thrilling seven game World Series. Even though the Dodgers were heavily favored, the Blue Jays proved to be worthy adversaries. There were classic games, including an 18 inning Game 3. There were epic performances from the likes of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And a Game 7 that may have been the best in the history of the sport that featured multiple twists and turns and went into extra innings.
But it wasn’t just the World Series that lifted the 2025 MLB postseason. In fact, according to Sports Media Watch, the entire playoffs were up an astounding 28% versus last year with an average viewership of 6.33 million viewers per game.
That number comes with the obligational caveat that many sports have seen increased ratings this year thanks to Nielsen’s new Big Data measurement, especially for the biggest games. Game 7 of the World Series alone averaged more than 25 million viewers and was likewise the most watched single game since 2017. And given the Blue Jays’ home market isn’t even counted in Nielsen ratings, that number could have been even higher if it was two American teams playing.
Major League Baseball was also helped by a record seven decisive final games in the postseason, four of which aired on broadcast network television as SMW notes. That included the World Series and the American League Championship Series between the Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners.
The postseason numbers built on an impressive regular season where MLB also saw healthy numbers as all of their major network partners saw an increase in ratings.
Earlier this year it was doom and gloom surrounding Major League Baseball after ESPN opted out of their contract amidst a disagreement over rights fee valuations. But now that MLB has struck a new deal with ESPN while also adding NBC and Netflix, and with these numbers showing continued growth, America’s pastime is as strong as it has been in quite some time.