MLB.TV, Major League Baseball’s official streaming service, experienced a major outage on the opening day of the 2025 baseball season, leaving thousands of fans unable to access live games. According to Downdetector, the issues began around 4:03 p.m. ET on Thursday, with over 21,000 complaints reported at the peak of the outage. Most of the issues (71%) were linked to the MLB.TV app, with users reporting that the app was failing to load streams or crashing altogether. By 4:44 p.m. ET, the number of complaints had dropped to around 2,000, suggesting that MLB had started to address the problem. However, many fans were left frustrated by the lack of communication from MLB.TV during the outage.
Several users took to social media to voice their disappointment, with some highlighting the absence of an official acknowledgment or apology from the league. One fan posted on X, “It’s completely unacceptable @MLBTV is down on #OpeningDay,” accompanied by a meme of a baseball fan yelling “FIGURE IT OUT.” Another user wrote, “No ‘we’re working on it’ tweet, no ‘we’re sorry’ tweet, no email offering a discount—nothing.
MLB.TV is Major League Baseball’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform, offering live and on-demand access to every out-of-market regular season game, as well as select spring training and postseason games. Launched in 2000, MLB.TV was one of the first major sports streaming services and has become a key part of how baseball fans follow the sport. The service is available to U.S. customers for $149.99 per season or $29.99 per month. International fans can also access the platform, though regional blackout restrictions apply.
In addition to live game coverage, MLB.TV includes access to MLB Network’s 24/7 programming and additional features like multi-game viewing, real-time game statistics, and personalized content recommendations. MLB.TV’s user base has grown steadily in recent years, setting a record in the 2024 season with 14.5 billion minutes streamed an increase of 14% over the previous record of 12.7 billion minutes in 2023. The platform has also benefited from strategic partnerships, including a long-running deal with T-Mobile. Under this partnership, T-Mobile is offering a free full-season subscription to MLB.TV to eligible T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Home Internet, and small business customers who redeem the offer by March 31.
Despite its success, MLB.TV has faced criticism over technical issues and blackout restrictions. Blackouts remain a significant pain point for fans, as games broadcast by local or national networks are often unavailable for streaming on MLB.TV. The opening day outage has added to the frustrations of fans who expect reliable service, particularly during marquee events like the start of the season. As of now, MLB has not released an official statement explaining the cause of the outage or detailing any steps being taken to prevent future disruptions.