World Series - Los Angeles Dodgers v Toronto Blue Jays - Game Seven

Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani of the LA Dodgers celebrate after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

This year’s dramatic World Series finish drew baseball’s largest audience in years

The business of baseball got a much-needed boost, as more than 27 million Americans tuned in to see the LA Dodgers’ nail-biting victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

Claire Yubin Oh

11/5/25 9:31AM

The viewing figures for last weekend’s World Series are finally in and they are ones for the books. The dramatic 11-inning Game 7 drew an average of 27.3 million viewers in the US, per Fox on Tuesday, becoming the most watched World Series game since 2017.

That measure only includes Fox’s broadcast of the match in the US. Add to that the swath of Canadian and Japanese fans eager to see their favorite team or star players, and the total live audience will have easily topped 40 million people watching baseball’s biggest game across the world. Canadians in particular tuned in en masse — with nearly half of the entire country watching the game.

The dramatic finale is the cherry on top of what has been a great year for America’s favorite pastime. The game has seen double-digit viewership growth across national game TV providers, and even in-person attendance for Major League Baseball has been strong, sliding over 29,000 fans per game after a pandemic dip.

MLB attendance is seeing a rebound — Sherwood News

Curveballs

Though per-game attendance in the league is below its 2007 peak — and the sport’s grip on America is nowhere near what it was during its golden age of the 1950s — the MLB has been working hard to stay relevant in our attention-span-challenged age. The league has rewritten rules, added pitch clocks, made bases bigger, and spent millions on technology — like the upcoming automated ball-strike challenge system — in a bid to make the game as fast, and umpiring as accurate, as possible.

Those measures seem to be working. Last year, the average length of a nine-inning MLB game dropped to 2 hours, 36 minutes, the lowest since 1984. And marathon battles are less likely, too, with just three games over the 3.5-hour mark in this year’s regular season — compared to a whopping 391 in 2021.

Regular Season nine-inning @MLB games of three hours and thirty minutes (3:30) or longer:

- 2021: 391
- 2022: 232
- 2023: 9
- 2024: 7
- 2025: 3 (through 9/25)
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) September 26, 2025

What isn’t hurting, either, is the arrival of superstars like Shohei Ohtani and series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who have helped to draw in new audiences all over the world.

All of this is helping the business of pro baseball, with the MLB reporting a record-high $12.1 billion in revenue last year. The strong viewership numbers also come at the right moment, as the MLB works to finalize its new multiyear rights deal after the league and ESPN agreed to end their 35-year partnership after this season.

Millie Giles6/11/26

JM Smucker says it sold $1 billion worth of Uncrustables in FY2026

After years of booming sandwich sales, JM Smucker has finally earned a billion-dollar crust.

On Tuesday, the company reported results for fiscal year 2026, highlighting better-than-expected profits driven by higher prices for coffee and sweet baked goods. However, at another point on the earnings call, CEO Mark Smucker pointed to one particularly jammy figure: in line with previous forecasts, the company sold $1 billion worth of its (almost always) crustless sandwiches, Uncrustables, in the last year alone.

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

Paramount reportedly offers concessions to resolve multistate antitrust investigation

Paramount has reportedly offered up some concessions in an effort to prevent an antitrust lawsuit by California and about 10 other states, according to Bloomberg reporting on Monday.

Reuters first reported on the potential suit from a group of unnamed states last week, which could throw a wrench in Paramount’s plans to buy rival Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood megamerger.

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

Paramount Offers Concessions to Head Off State Antitrust Lawsuit

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

$98B ⛽

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

The IATA released its latest financial outlook for the airline industry over the weekend, forecasting a $98 billion jump in the sector’s collective fuel bill. The world’s largest trade group representing airlines expects the oil spike to halve profits by 49% from last year to $23 billion.

The group also expects profit margins to halve year over year, falling from 2025’s 4.2% to 2%. Still, revenue is expected to climb to $1.17 trillion from $1.07 trillion.

A surge in the cost of jet fuel has rocked US and global airlines this year, leading Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and others to raise fares and ancillary charges like bag fees. Low-cost carriers, which operate on smaller margins, have been squeezed the hardest, resulting in Spirit’s shutdown.

“It’s a tough year for all airlines, especially those whose balance sheets had not yet recovered from COVID. And, of course, for those operating in the Gulf,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, who added that demand is holding up and about half of passengers expect to spend more on travel this year. “That bodes well for a strong northern summer peak season. The big unknown is how long travelers and shippers can tolerate the higher costs of connectivity.”

Hollywood Exteriors And Landmarks - 2025

1 year into the Switch 2, we might’ve seen the top of the console market

The Switch 2 launched on this day in 2025. Amid a rough year for consoles, Nintendo has logged a good one.

Max Knoblauch6/5/26

Max Knoblauch6/4/26

GM has reportedly rehired more than 100 former Cruise employees, 18 months after shuttering the robotaxi unit

GM has rehired more than 100 employees it let go early last year when it shuttered Cruise, its former robotaxi business, according to reporting by The Information.

The hiring spree, which also includes employees from Nvidia and Uber, is geared toward ramping up GM’s plans for personal-use self-driving vehicles and not robotaxis. The former had been the focus of Cruise, prior to GM shuttering it in 2024.

Reporting last fall revealed that GM was attempting to rehire some former Cruise employees, but the scope of that effort wasn’t clear. More than 1,000 employees were laid off when the automaker scrapped Cruise, which it invested $10 billion into.

Google’s Waymo, Cruise’s former chief rival, is now worth $126 billion after a $16 billion funding round earlier this year. The company says it’s serving 500,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the US.