Baseball has drama, skill, and mythology. What it’s always lacked is global reach. What it hasn’t had, at least not historically, is a global footprint that puts it anywhere near soccer or cricket. But that’s starting to change. Faster games, rising international stars, new media agreements, and an Olympic comeback are putting baseball in position to grow from a regional favorite into something much bigger.
The question isn’t whether baseball will remain popular in North America or Japan. The real question is whether the sport can crack markets that have never cared much about it and get fans from different continents watching the same games at the same time. With the pitch clock now settled in, plus streaming platforms hungry for live content, baseball has an opening. For fans who follow the sport closely, including those who track baseball markets on secure blockchain sportsbooks, the next decade will reveal whether baseball’s global ambitions are realistic.
The Pitch Clock Fixed Baseball’s Biggest Problem
Baseball games used to drag on for three hours. Pitchers used to step off the mound between pitches while batters reset their gloves after every delivery. Younger fans raised on faster content stopped watching. MLB added the pitch clock in 2023 and cut average game time from three hours and four minutes in 2022 to two hours and forty minutes in 2023, the shortest in decades. That number held through 2024 and into 2025 at around two hours and thirty-eight minutes.
That’s a runtime streaming platforms can work with. More importantly, the clock changed what happens on the field. Independent tracking confirmed that the 2023 rule changes produced measurable shifts in pace and action. Soccer’s ninety minutes and cricket’s T20 format set the pace expectations in most international markets. Baseball’s new tempo fits into that world better than the old three-hour grind ever could.
International Tournaments and European Expansion
Global sports thrive on big events that bring fans together across borders. The World Baseball Classic now matters. The 2023 tournament pulled massive audiences. Japan’s tournament run pulled TV ratings above forty percent of households for several games. The U.S. championship averaged 5.2 million viewers, a new record. Fox secured U.S. rights for the 2026 WBC and will air pool games plus the championship on broadcast television. Netflix bought live rights in Japan, its first live sports acquisition in that market. Stars make these events bigger. Shohei Ohtani’s presence in the 2024 World Series pushed Japanese viewership to record levels while boosting North American numbers significantly. One player turned a regional championship into a multinational broadcast. If baseball produces more stars with that kind of international appeal, a truly global audience becomes possible.
To become the world’s most watched sport, baseball also needs Europe. The London Series proved European fans will buy tickets. The 2024 series pulled roughly 109,000 fans over a weekend. Those numbers convinced sponsors and broadcasters to commit to future events. Continued London games, backed by youth programs and training academies, can turn spectacle into participation. You need spectacle to get attention, but you need participation to keep it. Europe also solves a scheduling problem. Transatlantic games air during the day in the Americas and hit prime time in the Middle East and Africa. Baseball’s shorter game times make those windows practical. The sport can plant regular international events that people actually plan around instead of forcing fans to stay up past midnight.
The Olympics and Streaming Open New Distribution Channels
The International Olympic Committee restored baseball and softball to the 2028 Los Angeles Games program. The move gives the sport a quadrennial showcase with the kind of global brand recognition that comes around once every four years. Olympics turn casual viewers into regular fans. People sample sports during the Games, get hooked, and then go looking for leagues or tournaments to follow. LA28 will also feature T20 cricket, which points to a broader shift toward faster formats. Baseball’s shorter games and international stars position it to compete for attention in that space.
If soccer became the global default through satellite and mobile coverage, baseball’s rise will depend on streaming. The WBC’s new rights deals signal what’s possible, with platforms that have massive recommendation engines surfacing baseball to audiences who don’t traditionally follow the sport. Short highlights in vertical video appeal to mobile viewers, condensed games serve time-strapped fans, and multilingual commentary tracks meet viewers wherever they are.
The Talent Pipeline Is Going Global
The U.S. had about 25 million baseball and softball players in 2023, but that’s not where the sport will find its next audience. Baseball’s growth depends on whether Latin America, East Asia, and Europe can develop the next generation of stars. Youth systems in Japan, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Mexico, and Venezuela have produced enough talent to create competitive international tournaments that draw real audiences.When federations and clubs invest in coach training and facilities, the talent base spreads out. That matters because fans watch when players from their country or region make it to the big leagues. More countries producing major league talent means more reasons for people in those countries to watch MLB games, international tournaments, and the World Series. Baseball won’t overtake soccer tomorrow. But faster games, bigger international events, Olympic visibility, and smarter streaming distribution create a realistic path to get there.
