World Baseball Classic title game draws record-shattering 10.8 million viewers

Tuesday’s World Baseball Classic championship game was a historic night for multiple reasons.

Not only did Venezuela claim its first title with a 3-2 victory over the United States, but the game was also the most-watched matchup in the 20-year history of the event.

According to Fox Sports, a record 10.784 million across Fox and Fox Deportes tuned in, with peak viewership clocking in at 12.148 million around 10:30 p.m. ET. Venezuela’s win drew more than twice the number of viewers (4.48 million) than the 2023 final between Japan and the U.S.

That game culminated with a showdown between then-Angels teammates Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Up by one run in the ninth with two outs, Ohtani struck out Trout on a full count to give Japan the title.

The Japan-U.S. final in 2023 ranks among the top six most-watched WBC games, with the other five all occurring this year.

The historic championship punctuated a WBC that overall drew record-high viewership across English-language networks. The tournament averaged 1.294 million viewers per game across several Fox channels. That was a 156 percent increase over the 2023 edition, which averaged 506,000 viewers.

Analysis

The World Baseball Classic was clearly a massive success with fans and for MLB. There was enough buzz heading into the semifinals and finals that we knew the final audience number would be big, and 10 million is a huge number. It delivers exactly what MLB and the MLB Players Association hoped: an exciting, must-see event in March that leaves fans primed to keep it going as the regular season opens next week. With this kind of momentum, it is intriguing to think about what MLB’s TV numbers look like as the league expands to Netflix and NBC in addition to existing TV partners Fox and ESPN. — Dan Shanoff