Dodgers-Cubs opener in Tokyo averages more than 25 million viewers in Japan, a record audience

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NEW YORK (AP) — Tuesday's first game of the Tokyo Series averaged more than 25 million viewers in Japan according to Major League Baseball, making it the most-watched MLB game in the country's history.

The audience for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs surpassed the 18.7 million viewers who tuned in for the first game of last year's Seoul Series in South Korea, which featured the Dodgers against the San Diego Padres.

Tuesday's game featured the first all-Japanese starting pitching duel on opening day. Los Angeles' Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in five innings while Chicago’s Shota Imanaga threw four scoreless frames.

The Dodgers’ 6-3 win on Wednesday, which featured a towering solo home run by Shohei Ohtani, averaged more than 23 million Japanese viewers. The second game also featured pitcher Roki Sasaki making his Dodgers' debut.

The two games — which started at 5 a.m. CDT in Chicago and 3 a.m. PDT in Los Angeles — averaged 590,000 viewers in the U.S.

Tuesday's game on Fox averaged 838,000 viewers with Wednesday's on FS1 drawing 361,000.

The previous season opener in Japan, a 9-7 win by Seattle and Ichiro Suzuki over Oakland in 2019, was seen by 5.6 million, MLB said Friday.

MLB said the games in Tokyo had the most merchandise sales of its international events, up 320% from last year’s games in London between the New York Mets and Philadelphia. MLB did not specify the value of the merchandise sold but said its Tokyo Dome store averaged more than 1,000 transactions per hour and sold more than 500,000 products.

The top-selling product was Ohtani Dodgers jersey with the Tokyo Series patch.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb