The World Baseball Classic has been rewriting its own record book every few days, and Sunday night may have produced the biggest number yet.
Team USA’s 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic at loanDepot Park — a one-run game that ended on a controversial called strike — “likely” drew around 7 million viewers on FS1, according to Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp. That would shatter the existing record for the most-watched game in WBC history, which had only just been set two weeks earlier when USA-Mexico averaged 5.02 million across Fox and Fox Deportes during pool play. And that itself was a record that had only just been broken by USA-Great Britain a few days before that.
The 2023 final between Japan and the United States — the Ohtani-vs-Trout matchup that set the stage for this year’s WBC — averaged 4.97 million on FS1. That was the previous benchmark for the most-watched WBC game ever, a record that has now been broken twice in the span of two weeks.
None of this was a given going into the tournament. Team USA nearly didn’t make it out of pool play after manager Mark DeRosa operated under the mistaken belief that his team had already clinched a knockout round berth before losing to Italy, a gaffe that Matt Vasgersian later took responsibility for helping cause and that briefly left the Americans’ fate in Italy and Mexico’s hands on Tubi, before Fox mercifully moved the game to FS1. Team USA survived, reeled off wins over Canada in the quarterfinals and then the Dominican Republic on Sunday, and now they’re in the final.
Which is Tuesday, March 17 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox — broadcast television, not cable — with Joe Davis and John Smoltz on the call, Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci reporting, and Kevin Burkhardt, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, and Alex Rodriguez on the pregame. When Fox secured the WBC rights last October, it committed to putting seven games on broadcast Fox, including the championship. That decision is about to pay off in a significant way. Moving the title game off cable alone figures to produce a meaningful viewership bump on top of whatever floor Sunday established.
The WBC had pre-set its bracket to keep Japan and the United States on a collision course for the final. Japan lost to Venezuela in the quarterfinals, costing the tournament its dream matchup. Based on what Sunday drew, it’s hard to argue anyone is worse off for it.
UPDATE: Fox Sports has released official viewership numbers with the game reaching 7.3 million viewers.
The #WorldBaseballClassic has met the moment, and @FOXSports’ coverage continues to match it!
Team USA’s semifinal win over the Dominican Republic on Sunday delivered the most-watched #WorldBaseballClassic telecast of all time with 7,369,000 viewers across FS1 and FOX Deportes.… pic.twitter.com/TpEeQy7u20
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) March 17, 2026
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.