Pro Baseball First-Half TV Ratings Rise 11%; KIA and Hanwha Games Dominate Top 10

The average TV viewership rating for the first half of the 2026 professional baseball season has increased by approximately 11% compared to last year.

According to viewership data for the first half of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League released by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) today, the average rating for the first half of this year was 1.30%, up about 11% from 1.17% in the first half of the 2025 season.

The average number of viewers per game also rose by 9.4%, from 275,205 in the first half of last year to 301,089.

The game with the highest viewership rating in the first half of this season was the match between the Samsung Lions and the KIA Tigers held in Gwangju on June 7, known as the "Moonlight Series."

This game recorded a rating of 3.66%, a 6.4% increase from the highest record in the first half of last year, which was the Hanwha Eagles vs. KIA game in Gwangju on June 8, 2025 (3.44%).

Games between KIA and Hanwha accounted for five of the top 10 highest-rated games in the first half.

Out of those 10 games, KIA appeared in eight and Hanwha in seven.

The viewership rating for the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO All-Star Game, held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on July 11, was 3.05% combined across five cable channels, a 29.2% increase from 2.36% last year.

Meanwhile, the KBO League drew 7,633,775 spectators across 424 games in the first half of this season.

This surpassed the previous record for the most spectators in the first half, which was 7,580,228 in 440 games last year, despite having played 16 fewer games.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.