2022 Hakone Ekiden Broadcast Pulls in Only 33.4% Peak Viewership Rating While Courseside Crowds Triple
Peak viewership on the first day of this year's race came at 1:22 p.m. when winner Aoyama Gakuin University's Hiroki Wakabayashi finished the uphill Fifth Stage, reaching 31.1%. The peak day two rating of 33.4% came at 9:05 a.m., just after the finish of the downhill Sixth Stage when Aoyama Gakuin's Yuki Takahashi held on to the team's lead and Juntendo University's Keito Makase overtook Komazawa University's Kohei Tsukuda in a duel for 2nd.
Meanwhile, race organizers Kanto Gakuren announced that an estimated 600,000 people turned out to watch along the course, more than triple last year's estimate of 180,000. Both years the organizers had asked people to help counter the coronavirus pandemic by not coming to see the race in person. Few people made the trip to see the Day Two start at Lake Ashi, but as the race progressed the numbers increased. Large crowds turned out at exchange points and in the Nihonbashi area near the finish.
Despite the increase, the number of spectators remained far below normal. Organizers' estimates of crowd sizes over the last six years:
2017: 1,180,000
2018: 1,200,000
2019: 1,240,000
2020: 1,210,000
2021: 180,000
2022: 600,000
translated and edited by Brett Larner
Comments