Baseball has long reigned as Japan’s most popular sport, but with superstar Shohei Ohtani headlining this year’s World Series, ratings in Japan are shattering records.
In fact, more viewers in Japan tuned in to the first two games of the 2024 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees than in all of the United States.
Games 1 and 2 of the World Series averaged 15.9 million viewers in Japan and 14.5 million in the U.S.
Those numbers are even more impressive given that Japan has about a third of the U.S. population, and World Series games start just after 9 AM local time.
Ohtanimania in Japan
The Japanese people take great pride in their countryman, Ohtani, leading his team in his first World Series appearance. He’s the biggest celebrity in a country of more than 120 million people, and he has a knack for putting up the biggest numbers.
Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Dodgers is not just the largest ever in Major League Baseball, but also all of U.S. sports. He’s an all-star batter and pitcher, hitting .310 this year while bashing 54 home runs and driving in 130 RBIs. Ohtani did not pitch this year due to off-season elbow surgery, but he has a 3.01 ERA in the majors, and, in 2022, struck out 219 batters.
It’s worth noting that Ohtani isn’t the only Japanese ball player on the field. The Dodgers’ Game 2 starter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, joined the team this year after beginning his professional career with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Pacific League.
Good News at Home Too
MLB also has some data to be encouraged by here in the U.S. Viewership in the U.S. is up by more than 60 percent from last year, and young viewers are tuning in at nearly double the rate, according to MLB.
A faster game thanks to the pitch clock and large-than-life stars are giving America’s pastime a shot in the arm. This year’s World Series viewership, so far, surpasses the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks, which averaged 11.3 million viewers.
Now, those ratings pale in comparison to the Super Bowl. Over 121 million tuned in to Super Bowl LVIII in February — an all-time record. But no sport in the U.S. can compare with football, which has been the country’s most popular since the 1970s.
World Series viewership has largely been on a downward trajectory since 1978 — a year that also saw the Dodgers play the Yankees.
Ratings are back up with the two teams facing off again in a battle between the league’s biggest stars — Ohtani and Aaron Judge — located in the country’s two biggest media markets.
Now, a more competitive series with a livelier Judge would have been welcome, but Ohtani and the Dodgers have already put on a great show, bringing a little Hollywood to baseball.
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