Kia Tigers players celebrate winning the Korean Series title following a 7-5 win over the Samsung Lions in Game 5 at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul, on Oct. 28, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap) GWANGJU, Oct.
29 (Korea Bizwire) — The year 2024 was a record-breaking campaign in South Korean baseball, a season that ended Monday night with a marquee franchise lifting the championship trophy for the first time in seven years. The Kia Tigers defeated the Samsung Lions 7-5 in Game 5 of the Korean Series on Monday night at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul, to capture their 12th title, and their first since 2017. No team has won more championships in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) than the Tigers, who are now 12-for-12 in their Korean Series appearances.
The Tigers also became the first team to win a title in five different decades, with five titles in the 1980s, three in the 1990s, and one each in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. And for the second time in league history, every postseason game was played in front of a packed house. All 16 postseason games this month were sold out, with 353,550 fans attending.
In 2010, all 14 postseason games were played before sellout crowds, totaling 298,000 fans. The postseason success in the box office did not come as a surprise, as the KBO established a new regular-season attendance record with 10,887,705 fans, shattering the previous mark by about 2.4 milli.