You’re sitting there in late September, the leaves are starting to turn, and your team just clinched a playoff spot. Naturally, you want to know: when does baseball world series start? Honestly, it's not as simple as checking a calendar months in advance. Major League Baseball likes to keep things a bit fluid until the TV networks and the playoff bracket settle into place.
For the most part, the Fall Classic is a late-October tradition. If we look at the 2025 season, Game 1 was pinned for Friday, October 24. That’s been the sweet spot lately—the last Friday of October. But why that specific day? Basically, MLB has a massive TV contract with FOX, and Friday night starts allow for a powerhouse opening weekend that carries into the following week without competing too heavily with the NFL’s Monday Night Football early in the series.
Why Does the Baseball World Series Start Date Matter?
The timing isn't just about scheduling; it’s about momentum. The gap between the League Championship Series (LCS) and the World Series can be a killer for a hot team. If a team sweeps their way into the World Series, they might be sitting around for five or six days. Pitchers’ arms get rested, which is great, but hitters often lose that razor-sharp timing.
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The Logistics of October
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the scheduling gurus have to balance several moving parts:
- Travel Days: There’s always a day off after Game 2 and Game 5 to allow teams to fly between cities.
- The 2-3-2 Format: This has been the standard since 1925. The team with the better record hosts the first two games and the final two.
- Weather Concerns: Starting in late October means you’re flirting with November snow in cities like Chicago, New York, or Toronto. We saw this in the 2025 series where the Dodgers and Blue Jays pushed the schedule right into November 1st.
How the Start Date is Officially Determined
You’ve probably heard people say the All-Star Game determines who hosts Game 1. That’s actually old news. Since 2017, home-field advantage (and thus the location of the start) goes to the team with the best regular-season winning percentage. It’s a much fairer system, honestly. It rewards 162 games of hard work rather than one exhibition game in July.
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In 2025, the Toronto Blue Jays (94-68) held the better record over the Los Angeles Dodgers (93-69). This meant the "when" of the start was Friday, October 24, and the "where" was the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
If you're looking ahead to 2026 or beyond, you can almost always bet on that final Friday of October. However, if the regular season calendar shifts—like if Opening Day is pushed late into March—the World Series start date will follow suit. The goal is always to crown a champion before the first week of November is over.
Television and the "When"
FOX has the exclusive rights to broadcast the World Series. They want those prime-time slots. You’ll notice that almost every World Series game starts around 8:00 PM Eastern Time. This is the "sweet spot" for national viewership, though it’s a bit of a nightmare for kids on the East Coast trying to stay up for a potential 18-inning marathon like we saw in Game 3 of the 2025 series.
What to Watch for Leading Up to the Opener
While the official start date might be set, the feeling of the World Series starts much earlier. You have to navigate the Wild Card Series, the Division Series (DS), and the League Championship Series (LCS).
The LCS is usually the best indicator of the World Series start vibe. If both the ALCS and NLCS end in sweeps, there's often a lingering silence before the World Series starts. Fans get restless. The media starts over-analyzing every bullpen session. But if those series go seven games, the World Series starts with an incredible amount of "juice" because the teams are already in high-intensity mode.
Planning Your Schedule
If you’re trying to book a flight or a hotel for the next World Series, here is the basic logic you should follow:
- Identify the Last Friday of October: This is almost certainly Game 1.
- Check the Standings: The team with more wins will host Games 1, 2, 6, and 7.
- Account for the "If Necessary": Never assume a series will go seven. Most World Series actually end in six games.
The 2025 World Series was a perfect example of why you can't just look at the first date. It stretched all the way to a Saturday night, November 1st, for a Game 7. If you only planned for October, you would have missed the most important game of the year.
Keep an eye on the MLB official schedule release, which usually happens in August. That’s when the "projected" dates become "set in stone" dates. Until then, just keep your late October weekends clear.
Actionable Next Steps
To stay ahead of the curve for the upcoming season, track the regular season win-loss records of the top four teams in each league. By mid-September, you can usually identify which city will likely host Game 1. Use the "last Friday of October" rule to block out your calendar, and ensure you have access to a FOX broadcast or a streaming service that carries it, as the World Series is never on regional sports networks or cable-only channels like TBS or FS1 in its entirety.