Twelve teams make the Major League Baseball playoffs: six from the American League and six from the National League. In each league, the three division winners qualify, along with three Wild Card teams, the clubs with the best records among those that did not win a division. MLB has used this 12-team format since 2022, up from 10 teams before.
The two best division winners in each league get first-round byes straight to the Division Series. The other four teams play best-of-three Wild Card Series, with the No. 3 seed facing No. 6 and No. 4 facing No. 5, and the higher seed hosting every game. Wild Card Series winners move on to the best-of-five Division Series, where the No. 1 seed plays the 4-versus-5 winner and the No. 2 seed plays the 3-versus-6 winner.
Source: MLB.com, “How MLB playoffs work: How many teams, format and more”.
Image: Fans at Dodger Stadium for the 2025 NLDS by Spanneraol (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.