Back in 2017, 25.4% of all households in Japan tuned into just the first round games (albeit that's the only info I could find in like 2 mins of googling). Now Japan has Ohtani playing for them again, and his stardom has only grown after he dominated MLB in '21 and '22.

If they make the finals, I could see viewership in Japan being even higher than the world cup. Afterall they have their Koshien tournament, which is a high school baseball tournament, that is basically as big as March Madness is in the states.

I mean MLB is the one that basically created and pushed for this tournament, originally through the IBAF, in order to grow the sport internationally after it was removed as an Olympic sport. Of course they have control over it. And honestly March is a good compromise. I'd rather have something like this in Spring Training than not at all. And while it's a cool tournament I'd rather not have MLB games be shut down for a month in the summer time. No way the owners would ever allow their players to leave in the middle of the season. Nor would they ever give up the middle summer months when MLB is the only big 3 sport on TV for about 2 months.

I get where you're coming from on the suggestion, but I'm just glad it exists at all.