TOKYO — According to the TV rating reports announced this morning, the excitement of the inaugural 38-game WBSC Premier12, in which baseball’s Top 12 nations are battling each other, is attracting remarkably high viewership across Japan, while viewers from over 210 countries have followed the action through online and mobile devices.
The official hashtag, #Premier12, has also been trending on Twitter in Japan, while related topics, such as players in the event and pitcher Shohei Otani’s “fork ball”, have also been trending.
The Premier12 has been generating TV ratings in Japan that put the new global baseball event among some of the top content among all TV programming during the past week.
Game 28 (Japan vs Venezuela) on Sunday, 15 November has thus far been the most watched Premier12 game in Japan, with an average TV rating of 20.0. The Samurai Japan National Team won the dramatic game, 6-5, by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to finish the group stage undefeated. The game saw a peak TV rating of an astounding 35.2 — the highest thus far for Premier12
The Japan-USA game on 14 Nov. saw a rating of 18.2 on Asahi TV; the Japan-Dominican Republic game on 12 Nov. posted a rating of 15.4 on TBS; the Japan-Mexico game on 11 Nov. captured a TV rating of 15.3 on Asahi TV.
Exceptional TV ratings are expected for tonight’s semifinal match between Japan and South Korea, which is also expected to sell out the 40,000-seat Tokyo Dome.
