World Baseball Classic television ratings Participant game broadcasts Sport24 secured the rights for international in-flight and cruise ship travel. TerritoryRights holder(s)Ref.Australia, New Zealand, and OceaniaESPNAustria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and SwitzerlandSportdigitalBrazilESPN and Disney+CanadaSportsnet (English)TVA Sports (French)CaribbeanESPN and Disney+China, Douyin, MIGU, Tencent Video, Fujian TV, and YoukuColombiaCaracol HD2, DituCubaTele RebeldeCzech RepublicCzech TelevisionDominican RepublicVTV 32, Tele Antillas, and FrancebeIN SportsHungarySport1Ireland and United KingdomTNT SportsIsraelSports 5Italy and San MarinoSky Sport Italy and RAI 2/RAI SportJapanNetflixNippon Hoso, Bunka Hōsō, and Radiko (Audio Only)South KoreaTVING, tvN/tvN Sports, KBS, SBS, and MBCLatin AmericaESPN and Disney+Macau and Southeast AsiaSPOTVMENAbeIN SportsMexicoTelevisaUnivision and ESPNNetherlandsESPNNicaraguaViva NicaraguaPanamaRPC and TV MaxPuerto RicoWAPA DeportesSub-Saharan AfricaESPN and Disney+Taiwan, EBC, TTV, and VideolandTurkeyUnited StatesFox Sports (English)Fox Deportes (Spanish)VenezuelaTeleven, IVC, ByM Sport and Venevisión.Cuts of Broadcasts at 2026 WBC Final game:
Czech Republic In the Czech Republic, about 840,000 people watched the WBC games through ČT, marking a significant milestone as the country's first-ever live terrestrial broadcast of baseball.
Italy and San Marino In Italy, the 2026 WBC sparked an unprecedented baseball boom, culminating in a historic milestone where over 7 million viewers watched the semifinal match against Venezuela.
Japan In fact, the final series in 2006 and 2009 rank among the highest-rated sporting events in Japanese television history.Attendance and Television Ratings Shine for '09 World Baseball Classic. Bizofbaseball.com (2009-03-15). Retrieved on 2013-07-23.
The Japan v. South Korea game averaged 62 million viewers in Japan.
In Japan, Netflix acquired the exclusive rights to the tournament for an estimated 15 billion yen. As another workaround, some karaoke parlors enabled the ability for patrons to sign into the Netflix app in their private booths, so that they could watch the tournament with their friends.
+World Baseball Classic television ratings in Japanese archipelago showing network(s) broadcast on and average viewership, 2023 Classic Date Network(s) Avg. viewers(Millions) Rating Share QuarterfinalsMar 16, 2023 TBSTV Asahi 38.16 48.0 Game 2Mar 10, 2023 29.86 44.4 Game 4Mar 12, 2023 34.25 43.2 Game 3Mar 11, 2023 34.25 43.1 SemifinalsMar 20, 2023 27.02 42.5 FinalsMar 22, 2023 27.61 42.4 Game 1Mar 9, 2023 28.56 41.9
South Korea The Korean rating in that game was the second-most-watched WBC game in South Korea, after the 2009 Japan-South Korea final.
Latin America The broadcasters in Venezuela were a pool of TV channels, that included: ESPN/Disney+, 1Baseball Network, Televen, IVC, ByM Sport and Venevisión.Cuts of Broadcasts on the final out:
In Puerto Rico, the final was the most watched sporting event for the past year with nearly three-fourths of all households tuning in.
In Latin America, a first-round game between the United States and Mexico, was the third-most-watched game in the history of ESPN Dos, one of the three Spanish-language channels of ESPN in Latin America.
Table based on 2026 Classic TerritoryRights holder(s)Ref.CaribbeanESPN and Disney+ColombiaCaracol HD2, DituCubaTele RebeldeDominican RepublicVTV 32, Tele Antillas, and Latin AmericaESPN and Disney+MexicoTelevisaUnivision and ESPNNicaraguaViva NicaraguaPanamaRPC and TV MaxPuerto RicoWAPA DeportesUnited StatesFox Deportes (Spanish)VenezuelaTeleven, IVC, ByM Sport and Venevisión.Cuts of Broadcasts at 2026 WBC Final game:
Taiwan TerritoryRights holder(s)Ref. Taiwan Eleven Sports/PTS , EBC, TTV, and Videoland United States The WBC championship game was televised in the United States on Fox in English and on Fox Deportes in Spanish. Play-by-play announcer Joe Davis and color analyst John Smoltz called the English language broadcast of the games for Fox, and were joined by Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci as field reporters. The game averaged 10.8 million viewers on Fox and Fox Deportes combined, peaking at 12.1 million during the later stages of the game."A legendary game calls for a legendary viewership number as 10,784,000 viewers watched the #WorldBaseballClassic final on FOX and FOX Deportes - the most-watched #WBC telecast ever". Fox Sports. March 19, 2026. Retrieved on March 19, 2026.
Most watched World Baseball Classic games in the United States RankDateMatchupNetworkViewers (millions)Round1Tuesday, March 17, 2026 Venezuela3 United States2Fox Fox Deportes10.87Final2Sunday, March 15, 2026 United States2 Dominican Republic1Fox Sports 1Fox Deportes7.37Semifinal3Monday, March 9, 2026 United States5 Mexico3FoxFox Deportes5.02Group Play4Tuesday, March 21, 2023 Japan3 United States24.97Final5Friday, March 13, 2026 United States5 Canada34.30Quarterfinal6Wednesday, March 22, 2017 United States8 Puerto Rico0MLB NetworkESPN2ESPN Deportes3.05Final7Saturday, March 7, 2026 United States9 Great Britain1FoxFox Deportes2.98Pool Play8Sunday, March 22, 2009 Japan9 United States4ESPNESPN Deportes2.95Semifinal9Saturday, March 14, 2026 Venezuela8 Japan5FoxFox Deportes2.80Quarterfinal10Friday, March 6, 2026 United States15 Brazil52.69Pool Play
See also World Series television ratings
Notes
References