While the storied rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees in last year’s World Series might’ve positioned it for the ratings hall of fame, this year’s down-to-the-wire showdown between the returning Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays put it over the top.
The 121st World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers across seven games, ranking as the highest viewership since 2017, when the Dodgers-Astros matchup averaged 18.93 million viewers, and rising 2% over last year’s average viewership of 15.34 million across five games.
This year’s viewers, of course, benefited from a full seven-game series, leading up to a nail-biter Game 7, which, as expected, drew in the Series’ biggest audience with 25.98 million viewers thanks in part to a riveting ending that went extra innings. The back-and-forth provided more suspense and drama than last year’s series, which saw the Dodgers dominate 4-1, with a final Game 5 that brought in 18.6 million viewers.
Baseball fans were amped to catch the final game, which exceeded average viewership for the last time that the World Series went to Game 7, which was in 2019 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros. This year’s series had the benefit of the drama of the Dodgers defending its title, the frenzy surrounding superstar two-way player Shohei Ohtani and an historic 18-inning, nearly seven hour-long Game 3, highlighting the extremely competitive matchup between the two teams.
Still, for much of the 2025 World Series, viewership was in the shadow of the Dodgers-Yankees matchup, with the first five games — the entirety of the 2024 series — coming behind last year.
Game 1 kicked off with 13.31 million viewers — down 12.5% from last year’s Game 1 viewership of 15.2 million — and Game 2 averaged 11.63 million viewers — down 15.7% from the 13.8 million viewers brought in by last year’s Game 2. Game 3, despite stretching a historic 18 innings, averaged 11.4 million viewers, down 16.4% from last year, and increased to 14.81 million viewers for Game 4, which only saw a 9.2% decreased from last year.
For Game 5, the 2025 Series scored 14.57 million viewers, down 19.7% from last year’s Game 5, which ended the Series. The 2025 matchup saw its biggest viewership yet with Games 6, which scored nearly 18 million views, and finished big with 25.98 million views for the finale Game 7.
Even with the specific attention to the Dodgers and Ohtani, viewership for baseball appears to be taking a bigger piece of the viewing pie than previous years, with the complete 2025 MLB Postseason on F0x, FS1 and FS2 averaging 8.09 millions viewers, scoring its best postseason since 2017.
“The Witcher” Season 4 debut falls short
The Season 4 debut of “The Witcher” debuted to 7.4 million views on Netflix in its first four days on the streamer after its Oct. 30 debut, a quieter start that landed the installment in the No. 2 spot on Netflix’s most-watched TV list for the week of Oct. 27, behind “Nobody Wants This” Season 2. That’s less than half the viewership than “The Witcher” Season 3 debuted to back in 2023, which saw the first five episodes score 15.2 million views for its Part 1 release in June 2023, though the Season 4 release was on par with the 7.8 million views the season tallied up for its Part 2 release in July 2023.
The decreased viewership might be due to the casting switchup, which saw Liam Hemsworth replace Henry Cavill as main character Geralt of Rivia.
NASCAR brings ratings wins to the CW
The NASCAR Xfinity Series closed out its first full season on the CW with its biggest audience in four years. The NASCAR Xfinity Series averaged 1.03 million total viewers per week across 33 races, according to Nielsen, marking a 10% increase compared to last season, and the series was also up 7% among adults 18-49. The championship race scored 1.02 million viewers, and peaked at
1.19 million viewers from 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET.
College football holds strong for Disney in Week 10
ESPN aired three of the four most-watched college football games during week 10, which saw Georgia-Florida lead the week with 7.8 million viewers, while Oklahoma-Tennessee came in third place with 4.8 million viewers and Vanderbilt-Texas followed with 4.5 million viewers. The triple-header averaged 5.7 million viewers on ABC, marking the network’s most-watched Week 10 since 2013.
Ten weeks in, ABC is averaging 6.9 million viewers, ranking as the network’s best viewership yet and up 22% year-over-year. Likewise, ESPN networks are averaging 2.2 million viewers, the biggest audience since 2010 and up 18% percent year-over-year.
