KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sunday night’s Mets-Royals World Series rematch on ESPN averaged 26.4 percent of homes in the Kansas City area — the best rating for any Major League Baseball opener in any market in records that date to 2001.

That dwarfed the 5.6 percent of homes that watched the Mets’ 4-3 loss in the New York area, a vastly larger market than Kansas City.

Nationally, the game averaged a 2.1 rating in major markets, a strong figure for the Sunday night series.