Fox is touting the success of the Tokyo Series games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, which opened the 2025 MLB season.
As expected, the games had massive viewership numbers in Japan. But while they didn’t air at an ideal time for an American viewing audience, they did big numbers stateside, as well.
Fox Sports PR sent out a post on X (formerly Twitter) noting that on average, 838,000 viewers watched Game 1, which aired early on Tuesday morning in the United States.
The post included other viewership highlights.
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Game 1 on Fox delivered the best-ever performance for an Opening Day game played in Asia, up +139% over last year (350,000 viewers) for the first Seoul Series game between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, peaking with 1,035,000 viewers from 8:45-8:50 AM ET.
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Game 2 on FS1 delivered 361,000 viewers.
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Average attendance between Games 1 and 2 (590,000) up +59% over last year’s average for the Korea Series.
FOX Sports’ coverage of the MLB Tokyo Series delivers double-digit viewership increase. 📈 pic.twitter.com/rarlEcUjFS
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) March 20, 2025
Putting two of MLB’s most popular teams (one of them being the defending World Series champion) against each other in a standalone series is certainly a good way to drive viewership totals up.
