Tokyo Series shatters MLB viewership record in Japan

Unsurprisingly, Game 1 of the Tokyo Series was must-watch television in the host country.

Tuesday’s MLB opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, which featured several high-profile Japanese baseball stars including Shohei Ohtani, drew an audience of 25 million viewers in Japan, according to MLB PR. For reference, the total population of Japan is around 125 million, meaning one in five Japanese citizens watched the Dodgers’ win on Tuesday.

The audience shattered MLB’s previous Japanese viewership record, Game 1 of last year’s Seoul Series in neighboring South Korea, which captured 18.7 million viewers.

To put the game’s Japanese audience in perspective, 25 million viewers is larger than any American baseball audience since Game 7 of the 2017 World Series between the Dodgers and Houston Astros which drew 28.2 million viewers stateside. The closest an American baseball audience has come since then was Game 7 of the 2019 World Series between the Astros and Washington Nationals, which drew 23 million viewers.

Needless to say, for a country about three-times smaller than the United States by population, the Japanese are punching way above their weight when it comes to interest in America’s pastime.

This is partly why Rob Manfred and MLB may be looking to package its media rights globally when they expire in 2028. Booming interest in countries like Japan and South Korea would make those deals significantly more lucrative if those markets are involved.

There’s perhaps no better example of where MLB sits in the overall American sporting picture than the recent news that ESPN is opting out of its agreement with the league after this year. So to see this type of growth internationally has to be a very encouraging sign for the league, and one that it will look to capitalize on.