Surprising! Why is the WBC not in the top? World Sporting Championships: Ranking by Generation
Part 1
Japan Wins First World Cup in 17 Years at ’23 Basketball World Cup
Basketball is surprisingly popular!
It’s no wonder that die-hard fans of the sport are glued to their seats. This was Japan’s first win at a world tournament in 17 years. It was also the first victory by a European team in a World Cup tournament.
The Japan men’s World Cup men’s basketball game in August 2011, when Japan beat Finland 98-88, was the first time a European team had won a World Cup. The game against Finland was played in Okinawa, and Japan won a historic victory, backed by the cheers of the local crowd.
This game attracted the attention of the MF1 (20-34 years old) and MF2 (35-49 years old) demographic, who are familiar with basketball through club activities and are influenced by the hit manga “SLAM DUNK. Basketball has always been a sport with many core fans. Moreover, the game was a come-from-behind victory after leading until the third quarter. Basketball is a fast-paced game, and the dramatic turn of events probably kept many people glued to their TV screens.
Sori Yasutake, in charge of public relations and marketing at the TV viewing data analysis company REVISIO (hereafter, “R”), said, “The game was a great success, and we are very proud of the fact that we were able to make a big impact.
R Corp. conducted an independent survey of each terrestrial TV program at the Olympics, WBC, and other world sporting events held from January 2011 to the end of February this year to determine which games kept viewers glued to their seats.
The table below shows the top 15 and 30 rankings for MF1 (20-34 years old), MF2 (35-49 years old), and MF3 (50+ years old) (For details, see “Measurement Method”). (The small number of soccer-related items may be due to the fact that the World Cup was not held during the survey period.)
Volleyball is actually strong among young people.
Mr. Yasutake continues.
You may wonder why the ’23 WBC (5th WBC), which was won by Samurai Japan, is hardly ranked at all. If more people are watching, the denominator of the tally is larger than for an event with a relatively small audience, making it harder to attract attention.
Still, each WBC game has an attention rate of around 60%. Most primetime (7-10pm) programs are in the 50% range, so even if they are not ranked, you can see how high the attention level is. The final match that defeated the U.S. in particular is astounding, since the first three matches in the fourth table start in the evening, when it is easier to watch, but the fourth-ranked final match, despite being broadcast as early as 7 a.m., garnered a figure of over 63%.”
Let’s look at MF1 (20-34 year olds), as mentioned at the beginning of this article, for the World Cup basketball game in first place, and also in second place is a basketball game with many core fans, the men’s game between Japan and France at the 2012 Paris Olympics.
France was ranked No. 9 in the world at the time and was the host country of the tournament, ahead of Japan (No. 26). However, Japan fought very well, tying the game 84-84 at the end of the fourth quarter. Although they narrowly lost 90-94 in overtime, they were able to push France to the brink of a major victory, which is probably the reason for the high profile of this tournament.
Another feature of MF1 is that three volleyball contents are ranked in the top 10, including the “Japan x Thailand” women’s World Volleyball Tournament in 2013, which ranked third in terms of attention, and the “Japan x Netherlands” tournament in the same year, which ranked 10th. The popular high school volleyball-themed manga “HIQUE! which was a big hit with the younger generation.
The ’23 WBC final, which was broadcast from 7:00 a.m., attracted a lot of attention.
How to measure the level of attention to the World Sporting Championships by generation.
R Corp. conducted an independent survey to determine how much people in front of the TV screen were watching the games. The degree of attention was measured based on the number of seconds people watched the TV screen. When people are “watching while cooking” or doing other tasks, they are often not watching the screen, so the attention level does not increase. With the cooperation of about 2,000 households (about 4,800 people) in the Kanto region and 600 households (about 1,500 people) in the Kansai region, an independent survey was conducted to determine which world championships in each sport were the focus of viewers’ attention. While the attention rate for most primetime programs is in the 50% range, the rate for popular sports competitions is over 70%. The high figures are understandable. The survey covered the period from January 2011 to the end of February this year. The survey covers sporting events with a household TV-on rating (viewer rating) of 5% or higher, and sports events that were broadcast on terrestrial TV for 100 minutes or longer.
From the April 10, 2026 issue of FRIDAY
PHOTO： Afro