LG Twins’ fans are cheering for the pro baseball team in Jamsil Baseball Stadium on July 9, 2024
South Korea is a fast-aging country, where one in every five is 65 years old or above. But it is a different story for the country’s professional baseball league.
Its fans are getting younger and those in their 20s, particularly women, are driving the growth in ticket sales for the 42-year-old baseball league that is on course to set a new record high for a season this year.
The growth in ticket sales to women in their 20s was notable. Their share climbed to 23.4% for the 2024 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League game audiences in the three-month period through June, versus 19.6% last year.
That contrasted with a decline in the share by men in that age group to 14.8% from 21.2% during the same period. The 2024 season kicked off in March.
Regardless of club or region where they are based, twentysomethings have become the key to the success in the Korean pro baseball league. They account for around one-third of the 2024 KBO League audiences in both 2023 and 2024.
That could be a strange phenomenon from the perspectives of the US and Japanese baseball leagues, where baseball games are viewed as a middle-aged man’s sport.
TICKET BUYERS IN THEIR 20S
Women in their 20s made up 47.9% of ticket sales for the March-June period versus 42.3% in 2022, according to Interpark Tickets.
Data from Ticketlink showed women in the 20-29 age group took the biggest share of 41.4% of tickets sold on South Korea’s largest sports ticketing platform during the March-June period. That compares with 36.4% for the 2023 season.
In the three months through the end of June, the number of the KBO league game audiences surpassed 6 million, according to the organization. It is the shortest period of the league to achieve the milestone.
The average number of spectators per professional baseball game is 14,533 in the first half, a 32% increase compared to the year prior.
If the upward trend continues, it will likely reach 10 million for the 2024 season, marking the first time to hit the mark since the KBO launch in 1982.
LG Twins’ fans stand to cheer for the team in Jamsil Baseball Stadium on June 16, 2024 (Courtesy of Yonhap)
Lotte Giants and NC Dinos, which sell tickets on their own websites, saw twentysomethings accounting for 38% and 32.3% of the attendees of their baseball games, respectively. That compares with 31% and 29.8% in 2023.
By gender, women made up 54.4% of ticket sales for all KBO league baseball games in the March-June period, up 3.7 percentage points from the year prior.
(Graphics by Dongbeom Yun)
Baseball clubs’ aggressive marketing through YouTube channels and social networks attracted throngs of young women to their stadiums. A popular TV show “Best Baseball” featuring baseball matches between retired players and newbies also drew interest in professional league games.
The average number of views of professional baseball-related videos on YouTube this year exceeded 100 million per month, up 30% from the year prior.
(Graphics by Dongbeom Yun)
Baseball clubs are also active in selling uniforms and products based their mascots to lure young audiences, while hosting events featuring popular players.
“Games alone are not enough to capture the hearts of the audience,” said a KBO League club official. “We need to draw the attention of fans through daily SNS marketing, products such as uniforms and events.”
By Ji-Hee Choi
mymasaki@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article
