World Series viewership +13% after two games

The first two games of the 2013 World Series on FOX is averaging 13.9 million viewers, an increase of +13% versus last year.

For the second consecutive night, the World Series led FOX to be the highest rated network in primetime by a wide margin (+36% in metered markets)and FOX's best Thursday night primetime mark since the American Idol finale in May. Thursday night's victory by the Cardinals over the Red Sox to tie the World Series at one game apiece drew 13.4 million viewers and an 8.3 fast national rating according to Nielsen.

In St. Louis, the game drew a 42.0 rating, the best for any game in the market since Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. As the game neared its conclusion after the Cardinals took a 4-2 lead, more than 70% of all TVs on in St. Louis were tuned to the game. In Boston, the game drew a 37.3 rating.

For the second consecutive night, the World Series was also the most talked about show on Twitter by a very wide margin. Nearly four times as many people tweeted about the World Series than anything else on television on Thursday (221,736 unique authors, +275% over the second place show, according to data from SocialGuide). Overall, they sent 451,665 total tweets, up +63% compared to the number of tweets sent during Game 2 in 2012.

The World Series now shifts to St. Louis, with Game 3 scheduled for Saturday at 8:00pm ET / 7:00pm CT on FOX.