Japan is rabid about baseball, and the just-completed Tokyo Series proved that. The series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs filled the Tokyo Dome and the first game drew 25 million viewers, making it the most watched game in Japan’s history and an increase of more than 19 million over the country’s 2019 series. That number also marked the largest audience for an MLB game since 28.2 million people tuned in for Game 7 of the World Series between the Dodgers and Houston Astros in 2017.
But it wasn’t just viewership that broke records. Fanatics reported Thursday that the Tokyo Series generated $40 million in sales of fan gear and trading cards, making it the bestselling event in company history. The merchandise created for the games was sold on the Fanatics-operated MLB Official Shop retail locations across Tokyo, the MLB Flagship Shop in New York City as well as pop-up shops in L.A. and Tokyo, and Topps collector activations in Tokyo.
Fanatics said more than 200,000 fans shopped at the MLB stores in Tokyo throughout the week and traffic was so high at the main store at the Tokyo Dome that 140 cash registers were needed to meet the demand. Before the first game on March 18, Fanatics said, more than 2,000 fans waited in line to get into the store, and before the second game the next day, more than 1,000 people waited in line in the snow for access to the shop.
The MLB Official Shop at the Tokyo Dome had to install 140 cash registers.
Courtesy of Fanatics
The limited-edition collection created by Takashi Murakami, which launched on March 7, sold out on the Fanatics app in less than an hour, with most of the product being snapped up in the first 15 minutes. The creation of the more elevated priced Sakura Elite jerseys that he also designed — only 40 of which were made — drew 5,000 fans to the Fanatics site to enter for a chance to purchase them.
Other popular items, Fanatics said, were the Topps Series 1 Japan Exclusive Mega Boxes, designed by Murakami, that sold out within hours on the Topps online store in Japan. More than 12,000 boxes were sold.
As reported, Murakami, a contemporary artist known for his floral embellishments, was commissioned by Complex to create a limited edition of fan gear and collectibles for the series. He also designed individual jerseys for some of the most popular players including Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani who put on quite the show for the fans during his team’s sweep of the series, as well as Cubs player Seiya Suzuki and others. He smashed his first home run of the season to the delight of the fans in the fifth inning.
