The 2014 World Series will be remembered for its compelling, overarching narrative despite — on a game-by-game basis, at least — being fairly non-compelling. I mean, the very fact that the Royals were there and the series went back and forth makes it a classic. That said, the numbers are there: this is the first World Series to feature five so called blowouts in it. Games 3 and 7 were incredible, Game 7 was a stunner, but the series never quite gave itself the chance to be the ratings bonanza it could have been.

Game 7 of this series finally changed that. It was close, tight, constantly changed course, featured some wonderful, historic performances and feature a last-minute, ninth inning twist that almost changed everything. The MLB and Fox were rewarded for this one with a 15.2 overnight rating. That’s the highest rated baseball game on television since Game 7 of the 2011 World Series between the Cardinals and Rangers. That game drew a 16.2 overnight, which means Game 7 was technically down six percent, but that’s three years ago and, really, who at baseball is going to care?

In victorious San Francisco, the Bay Area market drew a 38.8/64 rating, the highest for a baseball game in the market since Game 7 of the 2002 World Series. The game drew an insane, almost unfathomable 58.7/77 in Kansas City. The market wasn’t a metered one in 1985, so this goes down as the highest-rated baseball game in the history of Kansas City. Nationally, the telecast peaked at 11 p.m. ET with a 19.0/32 rating.

We’ll update this post later today when viewership comes in, but needless to say, that will be large as well.

UPDATE: Viewership numbers are in and the telecast averaged much better numbers than anyone would have expected entering the evening.  23.5 million viewers.  While it still falls below 2011’s total (25.4 million) it’s still an increase of 10 million viewers from Game 6, which is pretty remarkable.

About Steve Lepore

Steve Lepore is a writer for Bloguin and a correspondent for SiriusXM NHL Network Radio.