Rizin 30: Who Generated Numbers -

Last Sunday, Rizin 30 went down at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Fighting in the main event was Rizin star Kai Asakura and looking at various metrics, he was clearly the star of the event. His pre-fight interview, fight, post-fight interview, and his post-fight video posted to his own channel, were all the most watched in their categories (listed below). Outside of Youtube, he also dominated Google web searches, spiking well above other high profile fighters during the event.

While it is clear that Kai and his brother are likely the two most popular fighters, who fight exclusively in Rizin, the event revealed some other interesting information. Often associated with Kai, Panchan Rina appears to have been a success in her Rizin debut. Despite generating a low amount of Google searches, it is worth noting that Yahoo Japan is the number one search engine in the country, her videos have generated respectable numbers. In addition to this, her social media pages’ have been steadily growing since March, with her Instagram and Youtube pages both growing by over 25,000 followers, giving her one of the larger social media presences for a female fighter in Japan. According to our calculations, not counting TikTok, she has the third highest following, coming in behind Kanna Asakura and Rena and coming in just ahead of Itsuki Hirata. Also, some pictures on social media showed that she was fishing with Kai and Shoji after the event, making it likely that they are either collaborating for their Youtube channels, or they are part of the Rizin series where fighters go camping (like the Kyoji and Ayaka video). Either way, she will be getting some more exposure soon.

Whether or not Yuta Kubo and his wife are doing a comedy gimmick may be up for debate, but what isn’t up for debate is that they got some attention. Just prior to the event, Youtube searches related to him surged. Not only that, his interviews and fight received high numbers. This is likely due to a 41 minute feature Rizin released on him and his wife just before the event, which got 285,000 views. Despite losing his MMA debut, if he continues to generate interest, it seems likely that Rizin will be bring him back. Whether it be an MMA fight against Shibatar or in a kickboxing match, it will be interesting to see what they do with the soon to be 34 year old.

Finally, both Naoki Inoue and Kintaro have been receiving their fair amount of attention as well. They both generated similar views, similar Google web searches and similar Youtube searches, despite their differences. Where Kintaro has generated a core fanbase in his native Osaka, Naoki seems to have generated attention based off of his performances and his awkward mic skills. Where Kintaro is covered in tattoos and has a rough past, Naoki worked at a convenience store in a small town and has been training since he was young. Despite these differences, both have found success in creating interest in themselves and are in some ways a testament to Rizin’s willingness to market fighters in different ways.