The World Series Beat Sunday Night Football For An Important Ratings Win

After losing to Sunday Night Football in two of the last three years, the World Series picked up an important ratings win on Sunday night as game four on Fox beat the football matchup on NBC.

Game four of the World Series drew 16.0 million viewers (10.5 overnight rating) according to Major League Baseball, the largest audience yet among the four games. The Packers and Vikings, a game between two of the NFL's more popular teams, drew an overnight rating of 10.3 according to SportsMediaWatch.com.

In a World Series that could potentially go head-to-head with the NFL four times if the series goes seven games, the biggest challenge for Fox and Major League Baseball was Sunday night, a night that typically draws a huge audience for the NFL and NBC.

The rating is also a good sign for Major League Baseball moving forward. One year after the World Series was a four-game sweep and was the least-watched World Series ever, game four's audience was a significant increase over game two (13.4 million) and game three (12.5 million) suggesting that interest in this World Series is growing significantly.

If this series can go seven games, Major League Baseball may finally have some national ratings numbers they can brag about.