Copyright Variety
The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2025 World Series, but Fox also hit a home run. The seventh game of the annual Major League Baseball classic, which saw the Dodgers triumph over the Toronto Blue Jays 5 to 4 in extra innings won an average audience of nearly 26 million across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox-owned streaming services, according to early data from Nielsen. A fuller picture of viewership for the Series’ final game will emerge on Tuesday, when more data is tabulated. The telecast was the most-watched Game 7 in the World Series since 2017, when nearly 28.3 million viewers tuned in for the final showdown between the Dodgers and the Houston Astros. Houston won the game and the tournament. Viewership for Saturday’s telecast on Fox was up 10% over the most recent Game 7, in 2019, when nearly 23.3 million viewers watched the Washington Nationals defeat the Astros. According to Nielsen, viewership for Saturday’s Game 7 on Fox peaked at about 31.5 million viewers between 11:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. eastern The numbers represent a grand slam of sorts for MLB. The league is in the midst of awarding a package of games previously earmarked for ESPN to new partners. NBC Sports is expected to pick up the bulk of ESPN’s Sunday games, according to two people with knowledge of negotiations, while Netflix has been in talks for rights to the 2026 Opening Day game as well as the annual Home Run Derby. ESPN, meanwhile, has been jockeying for a new set of rights that would give it the ability to stream out-of-market games as well as five teams in-market packages. ESPN opted out early of its current rights deal with MLB, citing other deals the league has with digital companies that executives at the Disney sports giant feel undermine the value of the $550 million contract. Indeed, viewership for Saturday’s Game 7 telecast are 53% better than the Game 7 of the most recent NBA Finals, which were telecast on ABC, and won an average of about 16.6 million viewers.
