How many games in the MLB playoffs?

The amount of games in Major League Baseball's playoffs each Fall varies, depending on the series. If a tiebreaker is necessary to decide the Wild Card from either division, then a single game will be played between the tying teams to determine who enters the playoffs as the Wild Card.

The first round, also known as the Division Series (ALDS for the American League, and NLDS for the National League) is a Best-of-5 series with a winner determined after three total game wins. The winner of this series advances to their league's Championship Series (ALCS and NLCS), which is a Best-of-7 series. The two teams that win the two Championship Series will then face one another in the finals of the playoffs, known as the "World Series". Like the Championship Series, the World Series is a Best-of-7, with the winner taking all after four wins.

Because these are a series of "Best-ofs", the amount of games played each year in the playoffs may be greatly different. If every contention between two teams is a clean sweep, the amount of games played will be far fewer than average. Conversely, if every series goes to its maximum number of games, the playoffs will take longer than usual.

The playoffs work as follows:

1 Game in Wild Card Series

5 Games in First Round

7 Games in Second Round

7 Games in Finals