Game 3 of the 2013 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox was the highest-rated World Series game since 2009, reports Maury Brown of Forbes.com.
Game 3 highest rated World Series game since 2009
A record setting crowd at Busch Stadium and large TV audience tuned in to see a wild World Series game.
The game had one of the craziest endings in recent memory, with Allen Craig scoring the walk-off run on an obstruction call. Plenty of people tuned in to see the game; Busch Stadium had a record capacity of 47,432, while Fox drew 12.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data.
The series has posted strong ratings through the first three games, as Brown notes:
Overall, the 2013 World Series is averaging 13.4 million viewers through three games, up 15 percent over last year and the highest average through three games since 2010.
Sunday’s Game 4 will directly compete against the NFL, squaring off against a prime time game between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings. Some will want to compare the ratings between the two sports on Monday, but Dayn Perry of CBS Sports writes that the television ratings for the two sports are not directly comparable:
The NFL is a national -- as opposed to local-driven MLB -- mostly once-a-week affair that plays in cold-weather months and churns out 10 percent of baseball’s schedule. You’d just as soon make the point that MLB sells more total tickets. That is, either comparison is flawed for obvious reasons. The proper takeaway is that the 2013 World Series thus far has arrested a pattern of general decline in TV ratings for MLB’s showcase event.
First pitch for Game 4 is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. ET, with FOX televising the game.
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