A record figure of over 10 million people in the US watched the final of the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) on national pay-TV network Fox.
Venezuela upset the heavily-favored US 3-2 to win their first ever World Baseball Classic, with an average of 10.78 million watching on Fox’s primary English-language linear network and the Fox Deportes Spanish language channel.
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Peaking at 12.15 million, the match was the most-watched WBC fixture on US TV ever, up 128% on the final of the 2023 edition, and contributed to Fox’s most successful Tuesday of programming since game four of the 2025 World Series.
The tournament as a whole performed well on Fox, averaging 1.29 million viewers per game across Fox and the sports-focused FS1 and FS2 channels.
That figure, up 156% on the per-game average of the 2023 tournament, made this event the most-watched WBC ever on English-language networks.
Team USA obviously stood out as the biggest draw on US televisions across the tournament, drawing a strong seven-figure viewership for its pool-stage game against Mexico that itself outpaced the 2023 WBC final.
Perhaps the most lucrative matchup would have been a final bout between the US and Japan, a repeat of the 2023 final, but Venezuela’s upset of the defending champions in the opening knockout round ended that possibility.
This strong viewership sets Fox up well for the upcoming Major League Baseball (MLB campaign, which begins on March 25, and will run through September 27, with the postseason playoffs and World Series running to October 31 at the latest.
Crucially, this will be the first year of MLB’s new three-year media rights cycle, with Disney-owned ESPN, Comcast's NBCUniversal, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TBS, and streaming giant Netflix all securing broadcast packages through 2028.
The Fox-MLB deal – valued at $5 billion in total, or $714.3 million per year – runs across the 2022-28 cycle and gives that network exclusive World Series rights.
