For the first time ever, the audience for the World Series in Japan was larger than in the United States, driven largely by Japanese-born Dodgers’ pitcher/designated star hitter Shohei Ohtani.

The ratings for the second game of the series between Los Angeles and the New York Yankees scored 15.9 million viewers in Japan, while the viewership in the U.S. fell to 13.8 million, making it the second biggest TV market for the series, according to data from the Major League Baseball and Fox Corp’s sports division, The Hollywood Reporter noted.

Due to the 16-hour time difference, the first two games of the World Series, which were held in Los Angeles, aired in Japan on Saturday morning and Sunday morning. After game one, the Dodgers came away with a 6-3 victory over the NY team and LA also scored a 4-2 victory in game two.

Despite the lower ratings than Japan, the World Series has scored Fox Sports the biggest ratings the World Series has had since 2017, THR noted.

The ratings for the first two games in the coveted age demographic of ages 18-34 were also up 93 percent, according to Nielsen.

And according to the league, World Series engagement has never been higher, with 345 million views on social media and 25 million engagements.

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Saturday’s Game Two of the World Series drew 15.9 million average viewers in Japan, the most ever for a postseason Major League Baseball game in the country, the league said on Monday. https://t.co/abbtBYyNM4

— The Japan Times (@japantimes) October 29, 2024

The ratings for game three in Los Angeles of the series drew another 13.6 million views across all its platforms on Fox, Fox Deportes, and Fox Sports, making it the most watched World Series game three since 2018, when 13.3 million viewers watched the Dodgers beat the Red Sox 3-2, the outlet noted.

On the Fox network alone, the Dodgers’ 4-2 victory over the Yankees drew 13.2 million viewers, the Wrap noted.

The audience was also 63% bigger than the game two series last year between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, which had an audience of 8.13 million, the Wrap noted.

Coming out of game three, the Dodgers are leading the series 3-0. The series will now shift to New York for games 3-5 where the Yankees must come away with the victory if they want a shot at winning the championship, or the Dodgers will go home the victors.

Game four of the series takes place Tuesday night in New York.

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