World Baseball Classic: Team USA’s semifinal win over Dominican Republic draws more viewers than 2025 MLB All-Star Game

Aaron Judge made waves Monday in the wake of Team USA pulling off a thrilling and controversial 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic semifinals.

“The crowd here, the crowd we had when we played against Mexico, it’s bigger and better than the World Series,” said Judge, who notably launched a momentum-shifting and heat-seeking missile from right field to throw out Fernando Tatis Jr. in the third inning of Sunday’s triumph over Team D.R.

Advertisement

“The passion that these fans have to represent their country, to represent some of their favorite players, there’s nothing like it.”

The TV ratings are in from that popcorn-worthy showdown, and while they aren’t bigger and better than the World Series, they are record-breaking.

While playing for a spot in the WBC final, USA and the D.R. drew 7,369,000 viewers across FS1 and Fox Deportes, making that semifinal classic the most watched WBC telecast of all time. More people watched it than last year’s MLB All-Star Game, which averaged 7.2 million viewers.

And that’s while the Oscars were airing.