Team USA's WBC 2-1 Win Over Dominican Republic Set FOX Sports Viewership Records

Published

The World Baseball Classic is meeting the moment – and plenty of eyeballs are tuning in and watching some high-stakes baseball in March. 

Team USA's 2-1 win over the Dominican Republic in Sunday's semifinal on FS1 drew the most viewers in tournament history on any network with a total of 7,369,000 viewers.

The 2-1 USA win also became FS1's most-watched telecast since 2019 and the most-watched event throughout last weekend. Viewership peaked at 8,170,000 people from 11-11:08 p.m. ET, toward the end of the game as Team USA wrapped up its victory. 

Team USA's win over Canada on Friday was the most watched WBC quarterfinals eve, with a viewership figure of 4,285,000. 

While both lineups were stacked, it was the pitching in the game that made the difference. Paul Skenes allowed one run over 4.1 innings, and was supported by Tyler Rogers, who took over for Skenes in the fifth inning with the bases loaded, and got out of the jam clean. Dominican Republic starter Luis Severino struck out six batters and Huascar Brazoban struck out three batters across 1.1 innings in relief. However, Gregory Soto conceded a home run to Roman Anthony, the first batter he faced, and that was the winning run. 

Team USA faces Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic Final on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.