• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, November 2, 2010

Final ratings for Sunday's NFL-World Series competition show the NFL crushing baseball by 70% in the key 18-to-49 demo. Also remarkable: 24 hours later, "Monday Night Football" -- on cable -- outscored the World Series in the demo by 17%.

Factors could include young men attracted by fantasy football and gambling gravitating to the Sunday and Monday NFL games.

In "live plus same day" ratings, NBC's "Sunday Night Football" posted a 7.3 in the advertiser-coveted demo, compared to a 4.3 for the Fall Classic.

On Monday, ESPN drew a 4.9 in the 18-to-49 demo for "Monday Night Football," compared to a 4.2 for game five of the World Series. Fox is available in about 17 million more homes than ESPN.

Versus football -- New Orleans-Pittsburgh -- on Sunday, Fox came much closer in households and total viewers. But it still trailed by large chunks with the San Francisco-Texas game four.

In household ratings, the NFL topped the World Series by 19% -- with a 10.7 for football and 9.0 for baseball.

The story was different 14 years ago. In 1996 -- the last time an NFL regular-season game went head-to-head with the Fall Classic, with both on broadcast TV -- there was a 36-point swing, as baseball led by 17% in households.

Among total viewers on Sunday, the NFL led by 17% with 18.1 million versus 15.5 million for the San Francisco-Texas baseball game.

For "Monday Night Football" in total viewers, Fox turned the tables on ESPN and won with 15 million, compared to 12 million.

Last year on Nov. 2, the World Series on Fox also went up against ESPN's "Monday Night Football" -- Atlanta-New Orleans. And baseball won in household ratings 10.6 to 7.7.