Everyone watched the Cubs and Indians in World Series Game 1

Baseball is not dying! The national ratings are in for Game 1 of the World Series, and it turns out people are pretty interested in this year’s matchup.

That’s a pretty significant boost. Viewership is up 55 percent compared to two years ago, when the Kansas City Royals took on the San Francisco Giants. It’s up 30 percent from last season, when the Royals went up against the New York Mets.

The fact that the Chicago Cubs are involved this year probably has something to do with the elevated ratings. The Cubs are not only only one of the most popular teams in baseball, but they come from a large market and have the most compelling narrative. You may not have heard, but the team hasn’t won a World Series championship in 108 years.

While the Cleveland Indians can’t match Chicago’s popularity or market-size, they also have narrative on their side. The Indians haven’t won a title since 1948. That’s the second-longest drought in baseball.

No matter what happens during the World Series, one long-suffering fanbase is going to experience the ultimate high. That’s pretty exciting, and a reason casual fans might be more compelled to tune in.

Either that, or people who love misery and sadness are tuning in to see whether these fanbases can take another year of failure. That might be a cruel and pessimistic way of looking at it, but sometimes that’s how opposing fans operate.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik