Fox Sees Viewership Increase for Game One of the World Series

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Fox Sports announced today that Game One of the 2013 World Series earned an average rating of 8.6 and 14.4 million viewers, up 13% and 18% respectively over the 2012 Fall Classic.

More details from Fox Sports PR:

Last night’s game propelled the network to a first place finish in primetime television Wednesday night, averaging an 8.9/14 from 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM. That marks FOX’s highest-rated and most-watched primetime broadcast of the season and the network’s most-watched primetime broadcast since January for American Idol.

Key demographics also saw impressive double-digit year-to-year increases for the World Series and won the night including Men 18-34 (+24%, 4.6 vs. 3.7), Men 18-49 (+17%, 5.4 vs. 4.6), Adults 18-34, (+16%, 3.6 vs. 3.1), Adults 18-49 (+17%, 4.2 vs. 3.6).

Last night’s game opened with a 7.8/13 which was 16% ahead of last year’s initial tune-in (6.7/11). Ratings peaked at a 9.6/15 with 16.3 million viewers at 9:30 PM ET, as the Red Sox built an insurmountable lead.

According to figures released by Nielsen SocialGuide, Twitter activity for last night’s World Series Game 1 also saw impressive increases over 2012. The game drew over 793,000 tweets (up +6% from 2012 World Series Game 1) from more than 360,000 unique authors (up 12%) and was the No. 1 social telecast of the night in all categories.

Boston led all markets with a 39.7/61, the highest mark for a Red Sox game since Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS, followed by St. Louis’ 36.0/54.  Providence (34.6/52), Hartford (20.8/32), Fort Myers (11.9/19), Kansas City (11.1/18), Richmond (11.0/16), Memphis (10.4/15), Greensboro (10.3/15), and Cincinnati (10.1/16) round out the top ten markets for Wednesday night’s broadcast.