Major League Baseball was already set for its biggest standalone international games ever with the season-opening contests later this month in Tokyo between the Dodgers and Cubs. The event, however, has now grown into something much closer to the All-Star Game—thanks to a potential combination of homegrown Japanese star appeal, the presence of the defending World Series champions, and the involvement of a wide array of media networks, celebrities, and pop culture touchstones.
The league has finalized a series of promotional and distribution efforts for the March 18-19 games at the Tokyo Dome. On top of being a marked amplification of the ongoing MLB World Tour, the event will notably feature the homecoming of five Japanese-born players between the two teams, notably Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki.
The games will air in primetime in Japan on linear TV there. That will likely help the event at least challenge the record-setting viewership there for the Dodgers-Yankees World Series last fall, which aired in the morning there due to the time difference. Amazon Prime Video will also stream the games to users in Japan.
MLB is also capitalizing on interest by streaming the game in over 150 movie theaters in Japan, as well as several other communal viewing locations in Tokyo. This effort helps address historic ticket demand that has driven starting prices on the ticket resale market to about $2,000 each for the first game, and about $1,500 for the second.
There will be several fan experiences in Tokyo, including a three-story, baseball-themed attraction in Tokyo’s famed Shibuya commercial center. Another running this month is dedicated to the 2024 champion Dodgers, including sights and sounds from Dodger Stadium and items from Ohtani’s historic season last year, the first by a player in MLB history with more than 50 home runs and 50 steals, as MLB banks on its most famous player in his home country.
Back in the U.S., Fox will air the first game and FS1 the second nationally, in addition to local coverage on the teams’ regional sports networks. For Fox, the Japan games will be the start of what is expected to be a highly active year in baseball.
For the league, meanwhile, the economic returns are already coming in before the games as sponsorship of MLB Tokyo Series is expected to surpass last year’s games in Seoul, previously the largest international event for brand deals in league history, by 240%.
