Want to know how popular the World Baseball Classic has become? Netflix, the global streaming giant, paid north of $100 million for the broadcast rights in Japan, per The Athletic. While that decision generated controversy, it also injected a lot of money into the WBC, which will be reflected in the payout to winners.
As the United States and Venezuela battle for all the marbles in Miami, here's what you need to know about the financial fallout of this year's WBC:
How much will World Baseball Classic champions get paid?
The total payout for the winner of Tuesday's title game, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, is $6.75 million. Half the money is allocated to the winning country's baseball federation, while the rest is split evenly among players and coaches, with other staff members presumably receiving a smaller sum.
There is a guaranteed $4.25 million payout for the losing team. Both winner and loser receive the same base payout, but the winner gets an additional $2.5 million bonus from the WBC.
That means each player and coach from the winning team will receive an even slice of a $3.35 million pie, placed at roughly $83,750 — with the potential for less, depending on how well those lower on the totem pole are compensated.
How much were the World Baseball Classic payouts in 2023?
To really illustrate how quickly the World Baseball Classic has exploded in terms of popularity, we need only look back to 2023, when the winning payout for Team Japan was $3 million — with $1.5 million split between players and coaches (h/t Sporting News).
That is less than half the payout for the winners in 2026, with the chance for that number to expand even more in the years ahead. The amount of star power in this year's tournament — from Shohei Ohtani and Japan coming back strong, to the obscene levels of offensive firepower on the Dominican Republic team, to the surprise contenders from Italy and Venzeuela — is a credit to an increasingly global game and how much these players care about not only representing their respective countries, but performing at the highest possible level.
This year's games have been a resounding success. According to The Athletic's reporting, we can expect a full breakdown of the TV viewership across the world once the tournament concludes. Based on those numbers, we can perhaps begin to extraopolate data and project future earnings from baseball's greatest global competition.
Also, lest we forget, the Olympics are right around the corner. Baseball is back on the international stage and it won't go away any time soon.