A dramatic World Series will conclude Saturday night in Toronto, with superstar Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers on the mound. Despite the Toronto Blue Jays being a Canadian team, viewership expectations for Game 7 remain high.

Through five games, the most recent data Nielsen has released as of Saturday shows the World Series is averaging 12.5 million viewers. That is down 18 percent from last season (15.2 million), but it’s still the second-most-watched World Series since 2018.

It’s worth noting that Nielsen has changed its viewership metrics significantly since 2018. The company began including out-of-home viewing in 2020 and, earlier this fall, incorporated additional data from smart-TV and set-top-box panels as part of its transition to the new “Big Data + Panel” methodology.

So, what can Fox and Major League Baseball expect from Game 7 viewership this year?

Ohtani starting the game for the Dodgers should provide a decent lift. Games 4 and 5 of the World Series were similar contests, as the Blue Jays pulled away in the seventh inning of both. Yet Game 4, which Ohtani started, averaged about 200,000 more viewers than Game 3.

The difference is even more noticeable when comparing the start of Game 4 to Game 5: the first half-hour of Game 4 averaged roughly 500,000 more viewers than Game 5 (10.8 million and 10.3 million, respectively), according to data from the TV Media Blog Substack.

But two significant factors are working against viewership.

For one, Game 7 will be played on a Saturday night for the first time. Saturday nights, along with Fridays, have long been considered among the weakest nights of the week for television viewership, as people are most likely to be out of the house. However, Nielsen’s relatively recent addition of out-of-home viewing, which was expanded even further earlier this year, should help soften the impact.

Game 7 will also feature a top-25 college football matchup between Oklahoma and Tennessee on ABC. CBS and NBC will also air college football games. Outside of football, The CW will air the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship race, and Peacock will air the WWE Saturday Night Main Event. If Game 7 isn’t competitive, viewers will have no problem finding something else to watch.

One factor that likely won’t be significant is the Blue Jays’ Canadian status, which was a concern coming into the World Series. The viewership averages so far clearly show strong interest from U.S. audiences. The Nielsen-measured U.S. viewership figures don’t include Canadian audiences, which are measured separately by Numeris. Los Angeles, as the second-largest media market in the country, and the Dodgers’ reputation as one of baseball’s well-known “villains” certainly help.

The last World Series to go seven games was the Nationals-Astros in 2019. That matchup is advantageous for comparison when trying to pin down a viewership prediction. It’s worth noting, however, that the 2019 World Series took place before Nielsen’s recent methodology changes, and its Game 7 was played on a Wednesday night.

Only two games of the 2025 World Series—Game 2 and Game 3—averaged fewer viewers than their 2019 counterparts. Game 2 in 2025 was played on a Saturday night, while Game 3 was on Monday night opposite Monday Night Football. Game 7 in 2019 averaged 23 million viewers.

Other recent seven-game World Series aren’t valid comparisons. Cubs-Indians in 2016 and Astros-Dodgers in 2017 both comfortably outdrew the 2025 World Series through five games.

For various reasons, the NBA also doesn’t provide a helpful comparison. The 2025 NBA Finals were the first such series since the Cavaliers-Warriors series in 2016 to go seven games. But Game 7 of the 2025 Finals, which averaged 16.4 million viewers, was the only game of the entire series to average more than 10 million viewers. Every 2025 World Series game, in contrast, has averaged over 11 million viewers.

Using the 2019 World Series as a guide, Game 7 should average around 20 million viewers, assuming a competitive game. Both Games 6 and 7 in 2025 should draw fewer viewers than their respective games in 2019 due to the impact of this year’s Friday and, especially, Saturday night slots.

A 20 million viewer average would be great news for both Fox and Major League Baseball. So far this year, the most-watched non-football program was the Oscars on ABC (19.7 million).

Game 7 of the World Series will air Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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