The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays are ready. The 2026 World Series has finally arrived with Game 1 on Friday night.
It’s a best-of-seven series with the entire season on the line. One team will be crowned champions. The other will not.
Well, “crowned” is a verb that doesn’t actually apply in a literal sense here. Neither team gets a crown when they win.
They do get a big trophy, though, and they will be given World Series rings by their team if they win.
But what about a league-offered purse? Is there one of those?
Well, yes, but it’s not as much as you might expect.
World Series Prize Money
Each team that makes the playoffs earns a share of the money earned from playoff gate receipts (tickets).
According to MLB: “The players’ pool is formed from 50 percent of the gate receipts from the Wild Card Games; 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first three games of the Division Series; 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first four games of the League Championship Series; and 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first four games of the World Series.”
Each team receives a specific percentage of that pool.
The World Series champions get 36% of the postseason prize money pool generated across MLB. The World Series runners-up get 24%.
MLB provides these figures from 2019:
“The 2019 players’ pool amounted to $80,861,145.74. The World Series champion Nationals received $29,110,012.47 of that grand total, while the American League champion Astros received $19,406,674.98. The Nationals voted to award 61 full shares, which amounted to $382,358.18 each. They also issued 14.13 partial shares. The Astros awarded 57 full shares, which amounted to $256,030.16 each, and issued 13.58 partial shares.”
The most intriguing part is that the players on the team vote how to split up the shares.
They can do full shares and partial shares, and it can work out pretty nicely as shown above, with the full shares for the World Series champs working out to $382K and the full shares for the runners-up at $256K.
What’s the World Series Trophy?
Teams also get to take home the trophy for their organization if they win the World Series. It’s called the Commissioner’s Trophy.
It began being awarded in 1967 but didn’t get its name until 1985.
The Commissioner’s Trophy weighs about 30 pounds of sterling silver. It also features 30 gold-plated flags, one representing each team.
The other three major North American sports leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL) have their championship trophy named after a specific person, but not MLB.
World Series Prize Money for Brewers & Rays Is Less Than You Think