Baseball and football went head-to-head Sunday night, and baseball came out on top by a wide margin.

With a 12.8 overnight rating, the Dodgers and Astros’ World Series Game 5 thriller on Fox drew beat out the Lions-Steelers Sunday Night Football game on NBC, which drew a 9.4.

Confirming this rating from @richarddeitsch : 12.8 for World Series Game 5. 9.4 for Steelers-Lions. 2nd year in a row WS Game 5 tops "SNF" https://t.co/H7vDMnXzON — Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) October 30, 2017

Overnight rating for Fox' World Series Game 5 last night was 36% higher than NBC's "SNF." Last year, head-to-head gap was 32% — Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) October 30, 2017

NBC's overnight rating for Steelers-Lions is the lowest Week 8 "SNF" figure since it began going head-to-head with the World Series in 2010 — Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) October 30, 2017

There are obviously a lot of factors at play here. The most obvious one is that the baseball game was really exciting, with comebacks, lead changes, and home runs galore. Social media was full of casual fans or non-fans who enjoyed the drama and action of the 13-12 game, which ended after a 10th inning Astros walk-off. It was one of the most thrilling World Series contests in recent memory.

Steelers-Lions, on the other hand, was a relatively mundane game between one good team and one mediocre one. It was not un-exciting, but there was nothing exceptionally grabby about it.

And we can’t not mention the broader malaise of the NFL’s ratings, which have dipped and sputtered for reasons no one can quite agree on. Cord-cutting, quality of play and angst over protesting players are among the many, many explanations observers and analysts have pointed to to explain for the league’s tepid viewership. Presumably, all the factors tamping down ratings in general, in addition to ambivalence over a so-so matchup, contributed to the viewership for Steelers-Lions on Sunday night.

The World Series in general has drawn strong ratings, down from last year’s Cubs lovefest, but up from most other Fall Classics since 2009. We’ll have to wait for the full series numbers to draw a firm conclusion about what this healthy viewership means for MLB, but for the second fall in a row, the league has plenty to smile about.

Of course, baseball and its fans cannot exactly claim superiority over the NFL on the basis of this game. The fact we’re impressed about an exciting game on baseball’s biggest stage beating a regular season NFL contest shows the extent to which football remains supreme.