Even when the United States lifted the trophy at the last edition in 2017, beating Puerto Rico 8-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, any publicity was massively overshadowed by the Major League Baseball (MLB) preparing for the new season at spring training.

The latest edition, however, which concluded in Miami on Tuesday (March 21) with Japan regaining their title after a 14-year absence following a 3-2 victory over the US in a ball game some are calling the greatest international match in history, definitely put the classic into World Baseball Classic.

The game had an ending that any Hollywood scriptwriter would have been proud of, with Los Angeles Angels team-mates Shohei Ohtani pitching for Japan in the ninth inning against Mike Trout in the batter’s box for the US with the gold medal on the line.

Ohtani lured Trout, a 10-time MLB All-Star and the US captain, into swinging and missing at an 87 miles per hour sweeper for the final strike, leaving Japan to celebrate at the LoanDepot Park before a crowd of 36,098 split evenly between American and Japanese fans.

America’s squad was packed full of MLB stars, including Trout, who had committed to playing as early as last July, in what was the most star-studded team since for the inaugural tournament in 2006 when Hall-of-Famers such as Ken Griffey Jr, Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter were joined by Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens, but who finished only eighth.

But it was Japan who, with Ohtani in their line-up, boasted the tournament’s biggest star. The ability of the 28-year-old to excel at both pitching and hitting is so rare that the last player to do it at elite level was Babe Ruth, a player even non-baseball fans have heard of, a century ago.

The World Baseball Classic was the perfect stage for Ohtani to demonstrate his ability. He earned the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award for a series of outstanding batting and pitching performances, including striking out Trout. He was to Japan what Messi was to Argentina when he guided them to victory at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

"In my baseball life, [winning the World Baseball Classic was] one of the things that I wanted to achieve," Ohtani said. "Today I was able to achieve one of the goals. Of course, I happened to get the MVP, but this really proves that Japanese baseball can beat any team in the world."

It is no surprise that, with Ohtani soon to become a free agent and his contract up for negotiation, there is talk of him earning $600 million (£490 million/€555 million) as the MLB’s leading clubs battle to secure the services of this once-in-a-century phenomenon.

"What he's doing in the game is what probably 90 per cent of the guys in that clubhouse did in Little League or in youth tournaments, and he's able to pull it off on the biggest stages," Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said. "He is a unicorn to the sport. I think other guys will try it, but I don't think they're going to do it to his level."

Ohtani’s performance was the highlight of a final that was another appropriately classic game of a tournament that will be remembered for them, including the US 9-7 quarter-final come-from-behind victory over Venezuela and Japan’s nail-biting 6-5 win against Mexico in the semi-final.

How important this tournament was helping in baseball become a truly international sport, only time will tell. It featured an expanded field of 20 countries, which accounted for the presence of teams such as Great Britain and the Czech Republic.

While baseball is considered America’s national pastime, it has strong roots in a host of other countries. Professional leagues thrive in such nations as Japan, Netherlands, Taiwan and Italy. Overall, more than 100 nations play baseball. It is estimated that that nearly 40 million people participate in organised baseball around the world.

Any disappointment that US fans felt at their team’s narrow defeat should surely be offset by the success of the World Baseball Classic. More than a million people attended games in-person this year, nearly twice the previous record of 510,000 attendees set in 2017.

Television figures broke records too, with 5.2 million viewers watching the final, easily the largest audience in the history of the event. Three of the four most-watched games in the WBC’s five tournament history occurred in 2023. The quarter-final between Japan and Italy drew a 48.7 TV rating in Japan, making it the most-watched game in World Baseball Classic tournament history.

The tournament generated between $90 million (£73 million/€83 million) and $100 million (£81 million/€92 million) in revenue, also setting records for merchandise and sponsorship sales in the process.

"It definitely surpassed anyone’s wildest expectations," Noah Garden, chief revenue officer for MLB, one of the tournament’s organisers, said.

The success of the tournament is "affirmation that the league is headed in the right direction, doing things right to grow the game and connecting with an even greater fan base around the world," Garden claimed.

This is all good news for the World Baseball Softball Confederation as it continues to campaign for the sport’s reintroduction onto the Olympic programme at Los Angeles 2028, especially as the MLB plans to strengthen its strategy to grow the sport abroad.

"You’re going to see us do more of the same," Garden said. "Continue to increase play abroad. Continue to increase investment in key international markets."

The MLB plans to host regular season games in London, Mexico and Puerto Rico this year.

"When you talk about a World Baseball Classic, fans want to see the best and most recognisable players in the world playing for their country,” Garden said. "In years past, we didn’t always have that level of participation. This year we had it - and it shows in the product."