The World Baseball Classic is one of the most important tournaments in baseball. Every four years, countries from around the world select players to represent them on the baseball field as they compete to see which country has the best baseball players. This is one of the few baseball events that is streamed around the world, and it is highly competitive. The attention gained by the World Baseball Classic helps to improve the fan experience, ultimately changing the sport. 

In this tournament, there are three main rounds along with qualifiers, in which 20 teams fight for the right to call themselves the country with the best baseball team. The teams that play in this tournament are Canada, Mexico, the United States, Japan, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and more. 

Viewership for this tournament is surging this year. According to the Major League Baseball (MLB) website, 2.98 million viewers tuned in to watch the U.S.’s game against Great Britain on FOX Sports. Meanwhile, during the regular 2025 season, FOX Sports had an average of 2.04 million viewers, according to Front Office Sports. This shows how big the tournament is, with a qualifier against a team that was expected to do poorly (because of their lack of baseball history) getting almost one million more American viewers than a 2025 MLB game. This increase in viewership is causing a huge boom in popularity of the sport, which, in return, has led to more merchandise purchases, and has increased the MLBs total revenue and budget. 

Because the budget of the teams is increasing, the MLB is able to spend more money on players, equipment and stadiums. There are higher quality stadiums and customs as well as better teams.