AI in Baseball and Its Impact on Fan Engagement in Korea and the U.S.

AI is rapidly becoming part of everyday life, and baseball is no exception. In 2024, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) fully implemented the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), a technology that uses AI and pitch-tracking systems to determine balls and strikes, rather than relying solely on human umpires. Under the current system, the home plate umpire simply announces the result determined by ABS, only intervening manually if the technology fails for technical reasons.

Umpires and a technician discuss an ABS technical issue during a KBO game. Source: News1.

The impact was immediate. Arguments between players and umpires noticeably decreased, and many Korean fans welcomed the change. However, Major League Baseball (MLB), the league that originated in the country, has taken a much more cautious approach. Instead of fully replacing human strike-zone calls, MLB introduced a limited challenge-based ABS system in 2026, allowing players to request reviews during games.

This raises an interesting question: why do two countries that play the same sport respond so differently to the same technology? Having lived in both Korea and the United States, I believe the answer may lie in broader cultural differences regarding fairness, consistency, and human judgment.

KBO’s success after introducing ABS is difficult to ignore. In 2023, the league recorded approximately 8.1 million total spectators. After the full introduction of ABS in 2024, attendance jumped to nearly 10.9 million. By 2025, KBO surpassed 12 million total spectators for the first time in league history, setting a new all-time attendance record.

KBO attendance reached record highs following the full introduction of ABS in 2024.

What makes this growth even more notable is South Korea’s demographic situation. The country currently faces one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a shrinking youth population. In theory, sustaining long-term attendance growth under those conditions should be difficult. Instead, KBO has continued to attract larger crowds, suggesting the league is not only retaining older fans but also successfully attracting younger audiences.

Of course, ABS alone did not create this boom. Faster games under the pitch clock, stronger social media engagement, the growth of fandom culture, and the rise of younger female fans all played major roles. However, ABS became part of a broader modernization effort that many Korean fans appeared comfortable embracing. Rather than seeing technology as removing the human element of baseball, many fans seemed willing to trade some traditional imperfections for greater consistency, fairness, and a cleaner viewing experience.

Another factor behind KBO’s recent growth may be that Korean baseball has increasingly transformed the stadium experience itself into entertainment. While both Korean and American ballparks sell food, drinks, and merchandise, the atmosphere inside Korean stadiums often feels fundamentally different. KBO games feature constant music, organized cheering sections, popular K-pop songs, and cheerleaders dancing alongside fans throughout the game. Rather than quietly watching from their seats, many spectators actively participate in chants, songs, and coordinated reactions together.

Fans, cheerleaders, and a mascot participate together during a KBO game, reflecting the league’s highly interactive fan culture. Source: Yonhap News Agency.

These elements naturally create moments that spread easily across platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. For younger audiences in particular, attending a baseball game becomes more than simply watching sports; it becomes a shareable entertainment experience.

In that sense, KBO’s recent success may offer lessons beyond ABS alone. MLB has already shown a willingness to modernize through innovations such as the pitch clock and PitchCom. But if the league wants to continue attracting younger audiences, aspects of Korea’s fan-engagement culture may also merit attention.

Korea’s relatively quick acceptance of ABS may also reflect broader cultural preferences toward standardized systems and consistent evaluation. In Korea, fairness is often closely associated with uniformity. One example is the college admissions process. Unlike the American system, which considers essays, extracurricular activities, recommendation letters, and holistic review, Korean college admissions have historically relied heavily on the standardized national entrance exam, the CSAT (Suneung). For many years, students were judged almost entirely by a single exam score taken once per year.

A similar pattern can also be seen in employment culture. Many Korean companies traditionally relied on large-scale public recruitment cycles, where applicants were evaluated using relatively standardized criteria such as GPA, certifications, test scores, and interview performance. The underlying assumption is that fairness comes from evaluating everyone under the same standards and conditions.

Growing up in Korea, I naturally assumed that standardized evaluation was the fairest system possible. However, my perspective changed after studying in the United States.

When I applied to colleges in 2021, many universities had temporarily made the SAT optional because of COVID-19. Instead of focusing only on grades or test scores, schools considered extracurricular activities, essays, leadership experiences, and personal background much more heavily than I expected. Later, when interviewing for internships in the United States, I noticed that employers rarely asked about GPA. Instead, conversations focused more on previous experiences, communication skills, projects, and networking.

I also observed how important relationship-building was in American professional culture. Student organizations at Purdue frequently visit companies to meet employees and learn about workplace culture firsthand. Many students attended networking events, career fairs, and virtual employer sessions through platforms such as Handshake. Over time, I realized that in the United States, who you know can sometimes matter just as much as measurable academic performance.

I also experienced similar cultural differences in the classroom. During a business law course, one professor explained the American concepts of judicial discretion and legal precedent. He emphasized that judges in the United States do not always mechanically follow written law; they may interpret cases differently depending on context and prior rulings. Since Korea follows a continental legal system while the United States follows common-law traditions, I became interested in how differently the two countries approach decision-making.

One lesson that stayed with me was that American society often leaves room for human judgment, even when standardized rules exist. In many ways, MLB’s cautious approach toward ABS reflects that mindset.

Before ABS, KBO data showed that human umpires disagreed with the pitch-tracking system approximately 8.7% of the time. After introducing ABS, the league tracked more than 55,000 pitches and reported 99.96% accuracy with only 21 incorrect calls. KBO repeatedly emphasized consistency and fairness when promoting the system.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has generally supported ABS, arguing that it could improve fan engagement. However, many players remain skeptical about fully removing human umpires from the game. One MLB pitcher argued, “Can we just play baseball? We’re humans. Can we just be judged by humans?”

That reaction highlights an important difference between the two countries. Korea appears more willing to prioritize perfectly consistent outcomes, even if that means reducing the role of human judgment. The United States, meanwhile, often seems more comfortable balancing fairness with human discretion, even when inconsistency remains part of the system.

Ultimately, the difference between KBO and MLB may reflect more than simply two different approaches to baseball. It may reflect two different ways of understanding fairness itself.