Royals’ 5-4, 14-inning win over Mets highest-rated World Series opener since 2009

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The World Series opener between the Kansas City Royals and the Mets was the highest-rated Game 1 since 2009 — the previous time a New York team played for the championship.

Kansas City’s 5-4, 14-inning win Tuesday night was watched by 14.9 million viewers, according to Fox. The game received a 9.0 rating and a 17 share, the network said Wednesday,

The rating was the highest for Game 1 since an 11.9 rating/19 share for the Philadelphia Phillies’ 6-1 win over the Yankees in 2009. The viewership was the most since 15 million tuned in for San Francisco’s 11-7 victory over Texas in 2010.

The rating was up 22 per cent from the 7.3/12 for San Francisco’s 7-1 romp over Kansas City in the first game last year and the viewers were up 22 per cent from last year’s 12.2 million.

Kansas City was the highest-rated market at 57.3 — the highest in any market for an opener since at least 1996. New York was second at 26.2.

The rating is the percentage of television homes tuned to a broadcast, and the share is the percentage watching among households with TVs on at the time.

Fox Sports Go had 177,000 unique streamers, its second-most behind 231,506 for the Women’s World Cup final on July 5.