Japan’s ‘Sensation in Shizuoka’ on Saturday has lit up the ‘socialsphere’ with reaction to the victory over Ireland proving big in Japan and around the world.
The result, Japan’s second major upset in as many Rugby World Cups, saw the host nation jump to a record-high of eighth in the World Rugby rankings.
While the domestic broadcast audiences are not normally published until 10 days after the event, all signs indicate a largest-ever domestic audience for a rugby match and the largest live audience of the year in Japan with an audience share of 22.4 per cent on NHK at prime time in Japan.
The match occupied the top five trends on twitter in Japan, while it was also top trend in Ireland and the UK amongst others.
Total video views on Rugby World Cup’s Japanese Twitter account exceeded 8.2 million, while there were over 700,000 uses of the official hashtags around the match and match highlights on World Rugby’s YouTube channel topped one million within a matter of hours.
The largest-ever single-day Rugby World Cup fanzone attendance saw more than 120,000 fans enjoy the experience the length and breadth of the nation, creating incredible imagery and videos that went viral in Japan.
World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: “This tournament is shaping up to be something very special on and off the field.
He added Japan’s victory has excited a nation and captured the imagination of the world with exceptional social and digital media reaction and the tournament is big in Japan.”
