More people than ever tuned into this year’s World Baseball Classic championship game.
Tuesday’s final between Team USA and Venezuela drew 10,784,000 viewers across Fox and Fox Deportes, making it the most-watched game in the tournament’s history, Fox Sports PR posted said on Thursday.
This is up a whopping 128 percent jump from 2023’s championship game between the U.S. and Japan, which racked up 4,480,000 viewers.
In addition to the championship game, Sunday’s semifinal matchup between Team USA and the Dominican Republic had 7,369,000 viewers, the most-watched game in tournament history before the finale smashed that record two days later.
The 2026 WBC as a whole averaged 1,294,000 viewers across the three Fox channels, making this year the most-viewed tournament on English-language networks since its inception in 2006.
The overwhelming success of this year’s WBC has led to discourse about potentially moving the tournament to the middle of the MLB season. Commissioner Rob Manfred has alluded to the possibility.
“Obviously we have commitments to Fox in terms of the All-Star Game in the middle of the season through ’28,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “As the game continues to evolve, we have talked about midseason tournaments in general.
“And certainly if we decided to get serious about this, about a midseason tournament, this would be an ideal opportunity.”
Manfred also discussed the WBC helping grow the game internationally.
“The WBC is kind of a springboard for the rest of our international efforts,” Manfred said. “It gives you kind of a cornerstone to work from in terms of making long-term business relationships with sponsors, broadcasters and whatnot.”
The commissioner added that baseball being included in the 2028 Olympics could impact the timing of the next WBC, saying that he’s “optimistic” about the MLB participating in the Summer Games.
“The issue for us is whether we do it in ’29 or in ’30, three years or four years? I’m getting a lot of email from people today saying don’t make us wait four more years for this,” Manfred said. “I do think a three- or four-year cycle is probably about right for the event. The timing is going to turn on what we do with respect to related sorts of international efforts.
“I remain optimistic about the Olympics and obviously if we play in the Olympics it’s a short time from July of ’28 ’till the spring of 29 and that’s something we’ll have to take into account. I’m not saying it’s outcome determinative, but it’s something we’ll have to think about.”
