MLB’s Tokyo Series Shatters Records as Dodgers Dominate, Baseball’s Global Appeal Grows

Talk about an event.

The two-game kickoff to MLB’s 2025 regular season in Tokyo was truly spectacular. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs in both games. LA’s bullpen looked dominant per usual, Roki Sasaki’s stuff is elite, Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like a Cy Young candidate, Shohei Ohtani did Shohei Ohtani things, and the team won both games decisively without Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman even playing.

LA’s dominance aside, that’s not the big story here.

A year after putting on a similar show in Seoul, MLB decided to up the proverbial ante by kicking off the year in Japan — a baseball-crazed country becoming even more so in the wake of Ohtani and other Japanese players performing at high levels stateside.

One stat from this series tells you all you need to know: The initial game in Tokyo averaged more than 25 million viewers in Japan alone. This equates to a fifth of the entire population of Japan watching this baseball game at the same time.

In a word, WOW.

Baseball has come under scrutiny for its lack of modern marketing relative to other sports. Attendance has been down in spots, and the game has been called into question for being somewhat antiquated. Changing the rules to speed the contest up/allow for more hits via a strengthening on the defensive shift rules has certainly helped.

You know what else helps? Growing the game globally — and to this magnitude.

The Dodgers and its ownership brass have understood this premise for years. Heck — the Guggenheim Group sponsored the series! Starting with Hideo Nomo in the 90s, LA has been a pioneer in ushering in players from Japan. Even before that, Dodgers’ teams took trips to Japan during Spring Training in a cultural exchange of sorts. Similarly, teams from Japan would visit LA at their former ST home in Vero Beach, Fla.

By inking Ohtani to the $700 million deal — along with securing Yamamoto and Sasaki — the Dodgers have effectively made Japan ‘their’ territory, and by proxy, Major League Baseball is also benefitting greatly.

One look at the stands tells you all you need to know. Roughly 90 percent of those in attendance were wearing Dodgers merchandise in some shape or form. Those who’ve lived in Tokyo over the last calendar year have remarked that Dodgers merchandise is widely available and present throughout the gigantic city. Large numbers of tourists from Tokyo take direct flights to LA just to see the Dodgers and their collection of Japanese players play. Ads in Japanese are littered all throughout Dodger Stadium. Even the cuisine is starting to resemble a very multicultural menu fully equipped with Korean fried chicken and sushi (among other items).

This is something that MLB is smartly cultivating and growing. If viewership in the states is struggling, why not tap into another demographic with a ravenous appetite for baseball? The next step is further growing the popularity of the sport in the U.S.

This might be happening based on the dwindling amount of people watching the NBA, and the lessening numbers of youth kids playing football.

If the marketing powers that be can continue to create fun atmospheres — such as the ones we saw here in Tokyo and during the World Baseball Classic — America’s greatest pasttime has a real shot at enjoying a much-needed renaissance.