World Series 2026: Schedule, Dates and How to Watch

Game 1 is Friday, October 23, 2026. The series runs through the end of the month, and if it goes the distance, Game 7 is scheduled for Saturday, October 31. Sources: MLB, CBS Sports.

Game 1: Friday, October 23. Game 2: Saturday, October 24. Game 3: Monday, October 26. Game 4: Tuesday, October 27. Game 5 (if needed): Wednesday, October 28. Game 6 (if needed): Friday, October 30. Game 7 (if needed): Saturday, October 31. The two off days sit after Game 2 and after Game 5, for travel. Sources: MLB, CBS Sports, FOX Sports.

Every game is on FOX, and every game also streams on FOX One. Unlike the earlier rounds, which are split between NBC, TBS and FOX under the rights deal that took effect in 2026, the World Series sits with a single broadcaster from Game 1 to Game 7. Sources: FOX Sports, MLB.

Best of seven, in a 2-3-2 home split. The team with home-field advantage hosts Games 1, 2, 6 and 7; its opponent hosts Games 3, 4 and 5. First to four wins takes the Commissioner's Trophy. Sources: MLB, FOX Sports.

The pennant winner with the better regular-season record, not the better playoff seed. Seeding only orders each league's own bracket; once the two champions meet, the 162-game record is the tiebreak. If both finished level, MLB falls back on its standard tiebreakers. Sources: MLB, FOX Sports.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 in a series that went to a deciding game. They won Game 7 by 5-4 in 11 innings: Miguel Rojas tied it with a ninth-inning home run and Will Smith won it with a home run in the 11th. It made the Dodgers the first back-to-back champions since the 2000 New York Yankees. Sources: ESPN, MLB, NPR.

Neither is known yet. The matchup is only set once both League Championship Series finish, which is late in the week of October 19. The NLCS starts no earlier than October 11 and the ALCS no earlier than October 12, and both are best of seven. Sources: MLB, CBS Sports.

As of September 20, 2026, five of the twelve places were locked: the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers, both with division titles in hand, plus the Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees. Milwaukee holds the inside track to the National League's top seed. The AL West was still tied between the Astros and the Rangers. Sources: Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN.

Four rounds. Wild Card Series from September 29 (best of three, top two division winners per league skip it), Division Series from October 3 (best of five), Championship Series from October 11 (best of seven), then the World Series. A team that enters at the bottom of the bracket has to win eleven games to finish the job. Source: MLB.

Yes. With Game 1 on October 23 and the standard two travel days, a full seven-game series ends on Saturday, October 31. It would be the latest a World Series has finished in several years, a consequence of the 2026 calendar rather than any change to the format. Sources: MLB, CBS Sports.

Start times had not been published as of September 20, 2026. MLB and FOX confirm them once the matchup is set, and recent World Series games have generally started in the 8 p.m. ET window on weeknights, earlier on weekends. Treat any time you see before the pennants are decided as a placeholder. Source: MLB.

The Commissioner's Trophy, a share of the postseason player pool and a World Series ring. Unlike most trophies in American sport, it is remade each year, so the winning club keeps the actual trophy rather than passing it on. Source: MLB.

Yes, and it has happened repeatedly since the bracket expanded to twelve teams in 2022. That is precisely the standing criticism of the format: a 162-game season can be undone by one three-game series in the last days of September. Sources: MLB, ESPN.

Nine, counting the Brooklyn years: 1955, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988, 2020, 2024 and 2025. The last two came back to back. Sources: MLB, Baseball Reference.