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The story
TBS announced that its coverage of the “Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya,” broadcast from September 16 to October 4, drew a cumulative total of over 83.93 million viewers across the tournament — with terrestrial broadcast time exceeding 110 hours, making it the longest sports broadcast in the network’s history. The highest per-minute rating came during the men’s soccer final between Japan and South Korea. On 5ch, the news split commenters between those hailing it as “proof of soccer’s popularity” and those demanding to know “what about baseball’s ratings?” — reigniting the usual soccer-vs-baseball popularity debate.
Asian Games: TBS Sets All-Time Longest Broadcast Record, 83.93 Million Total Viewers, Japan-Korea Soccer Final Tops Ratings
TBS announced on the 22nd that cumulative viewership across its full broadcast schedule for the “Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya” (September 16 – October 4) topped 83.93 million.
The men’s soccer final, a championship showdown between Japan and South Korea, recorded the highest per-minute rating. Terrestrial broadcast time totaled over 110 hours, making it the longest sports broadcast in the network’s history.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
So how were the ratings for baseball ("yakyuu," a dismissive slang term for the sport) at the Asian Games, then?
Did you know American football is by far the most popular sport in America, with basketball in second?
Soccer is the most popular sport in both Japan and America.
Don't just copy-paste the trash media's headline verbatim.
Baseball ("yakyuu"): nobody cares unless Ohtani's playing.
Women's soccer >>> men's soccer
T-the (baseball) 'World Series' is way more… m-minor! I mean, amazing, okay?!
So… Europe and Japan don't even get to play in it?
Related:
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Japan U-17 National Team, Group L (Japan Standard Time)
Sat, Nov 21, 21:30 🇯🇵 Japan vs Colombia 🇨🇴
Tue, Nov 24, 22:00 🇯🇵 Japan vs Serbia 🇷🇸
Fri, Nov 27, 22:00 🇭🇳 Honduras vs Japan 🇯🇵
*Streaming free on DAZN
Just beat top favorite France 3-1
If they broadcast this one too, it'd pull close to 20% ratings, easy 😎
Back in the Sakata era (I think?), the World Youth Championship aired late at night and still beat Koshien's all-time highest ratings — so TV Asahi, who was airing it, got spooked and just stopped broadcasting it 🤣
Ohtani's basically washed up at this point, too.
The J.League averages 20,000 fans a game, so I'd call that a success?
Maybe you should worry more about pro baseball, whose audience is nothing but senior citizens lol
The number of people actually playing baseball has dropped below table tennis club membership, too lol
Dismal? It's rapidly grown into one of the biggest pro sports in the country.
It will be held November 12–15, 2026 at Tokyo Dome, sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). Key features are as follows.
1. Participating countries/regions (4 teams)
Japan (Samurai Japan), South Korea, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), and Australia — four countries will compete.
2. Eligibility (youth-focused rosters)
To give players international experience, the following age/career restrictions generally apply:
• Young players aged 24 or under, or in their first 3 years as pros
• Over-age slots (OA slots): up to 3 players aged 29 or under may be used
Baseball always just calls up Korea, Taiwan, and Australia to come to Japan, huh?
And the sponsor's always some used car dealership.
Wait, is Australia even part of Asia for baseball purposes?
Does Australia even have pro baseball?
If the media ever stopped pushing it, baseball itself would lose its numbers entirely.
Nobody actually likes baseball anymore.
It's just old folks who like feeling part of the majority because the media force-feeds it to everyone.
No idea how impressive that's actually supposed to be.
Meanwhile, the harsh truth is baseball — mockingly nicknamed "pig sugoroku" — gets a grand total of zero hours for "shortest broadcast" (lol)
First, Gen Z (25 and under): slightly trending up, but still under 10% either way. Seems like very few people in this generation care about baseball.
The core demographic (13–49) isn't high either. It ticks up slightly, but it's still more than 5% below the overall population average.
Age-wise, it's the middle-aged and elderly keeping this sport's popularity afloat. The 50s–60s bracket runs 7–8% above the overall average. And for the 70-and-up crowd, it's nearly double the overall average. Baseball really is a sport propped up by senior citizens.
https://livedoor.blogimg.jp/rock1963roll/imgs/1/9/1982bc18.jpg
Background and Key Points of This Debate
The figure “83.93 million” is the cumulative viewership across the entire tournament — a different metric from individual program rating rankings, and it’s easy to conflate the two. Also worth noting: each country’s baseball squad at the Asian Games was largely made up of amateur and corporate-league players rather than top pros, so comparing its ratings directly against a national-team soccer match isn’t quite apples to apples. In the thread, reactions split between those treating the result as “proof of soccer’s popularity” and those pushing back that “it’s an unfair comparison that shortchanges baseball” — underneath it all is the long-running debate over the aging audience and declining youth interest in Japan’s domestic pro baseball league.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisportsu Sokuhou+) thread “[Asian Games] TBS Sets All-Time Longest Broadcast Record — 83.93 Million Total Viewers, Soccer ‘Japan vs. South Korea’ Final Tops Ratings.”
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