Japan has been obsessed with baseball for generations, but Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s first World Series brought the game unprecedented popularity in the country.

The second game of the World Series between the Dodgers and New York Yankees drew an average of 15.9 million viewers in Japan, about 12 percent of the population.

The Dodgers’ thrilling 4-2 victory over the Yankees, in which Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched strong but left fans holding their breath when Ohtani left in the seventh inning with a shoulder injury, was MLB’s most-watched -Postseason win game of all time in Japan.

The U.S. actually slipped behind Japan as baseball’s second-largest TV market for the first time during the game. About 13.8 million viewers in the U.S. – home to a much larger population of 346 million – watched the game, according to data released Monday by Major League Baseball and Fox Corp.’s sports division. published data.

Japan is 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles, so the first two games of the series there began at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday morning. The games will be broadcast in the country by Fuji TV, NHK BS and J Sports.

The Dodgers announced that Ohtani would play in Game 3 of the World Series in New York, ensuring that Japanese fans would once again turn out in large numbers.

The high-profile showdown between baseball’s two most valuable franchises – the Dodgers and Yankees – has become a ratings gamble for Fox Sports, which broadcasts the games in the US. So far, viewership is on track to reach highs not seen since the 2017 World Series. Perhaps even more important for the game’s future, according to Nielsen, viewership among 18- to 34-year-olds, a coveted demographic for advertisers, increased 93 percent for the series. And social media views (345 million) and engagement (25 million) were the highest in World Series history, according to the league.