After a 99-day lockout, the 2022 MLB season is finally here and teams are beginning the 162-game march to the World Series. The Atlanta Braves enter 2022 as the defending World Series champs, but lost their longtime first baseman Freddie Freeman to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are absolutely loaded and the clear favorites to win this year’s crown. The New York Mets signed Max Scherzer to anchor their pitching staff and should challenge the Braves in the NL East. The Milwaukee Brewers are favored to win the NL Central again, with the St. Louis Cardinals looking like their biggest challenger.
Led by superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Toronto Blue Jays look to be formidable in the crowded AL East with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays. The Minnesota Twins made some offseason moves, highlighted by signing shortstop Carlos Correa, so that they could make a run at the Chicago White Sox, who cruised to the division title in the AL Central last year. The Houston Astros made it to the World Series last year and should again set the pace in the AL West, but the Los Angeles Angels should be fun to watch with arguably the two best players in the game — three-time AL MVP Mike Trout and reigning AL MVP and two-way marvel Shohei Ohtani.
Baseball fans have many ways to livestream their favorite team’s games this season without subscribing to cable, but the best option for one fan might not work for another. Selecting the right streaming service for watching baseball greatly depends on which team you follow and where you live. Veteran baseball streamers will note new options for 2022, including Apple TV Plus and Peacock, as well as Yankees games on Amazon Prime Video and perhaps, if previous years are any indication, a handful of games on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Keep reading for the best ways to stream baseball this spring and summer.
By dominating on the mound and also with a bat in his hand, Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels is emerging as baseball’s brightest star.
Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Live TV streaming service vs. MLB.TV
There are two major ways to stream MLB games day in, day out without a cable or satellite TV subscription:
Depending on where you live, one of the major live TV streaming services could carry the channel that has your favorite team. Those channels, called regional sports networks, deliver almost all of the regular-season games live.
Most such services, however, carry only a handful of the 30 RSNs that show MLB games — and they’re typically the most expensive. DirecTV Stream carries the most RSNs, but you’ll need to spring for its $90-a-month plan; its basic $70-a-month plan doesn’t include RSNs. Sling TV, a service that costs $35 a month, doesn’t have any RSNs for baseball. If you’re a baseball fan who needs your team’s RSN, a cable subscription might actually be cheaper than streaming.
The other option is MLB.TV, a separate service that carries every game played by every team live. It’s great for hard-core fans in general. MLB.TV costs $130 for the season or $25 a month.
The big catch with MLB.TV is the local blackout restriction: You can’t watch your local team’s games live. Instead, they become available about 90 minutes after the game ends. If you’re a Yankees fan in the New York area, for example, you can’t start to watch the Yankees game until an hour and a half after the final out. Other teams’ games aren’t blacked out live, which makes MLB.TV ideal for fans who want to follow one or more of the 28 or 29 teams based in other cities, aka out-of-market teams.
DirecTV Stream: Best for fans of the home team
Due to MLB.TV’s blackout restriction, a live TV streaming service is the best bet for following your local team. Many services carry the RSN that has exclusive rights to every regular season game, but availability varies by location and service.
In addition to the RSNs listed below, live TV services carry most if not all of the major national networks — ESPN, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS — that regularly televise matchups from different teams around the league. Details are at the top of this article.
Here’s how the RSNs stack up on each service.
RSN availability by team and streaming service
| Team | Network Name | DirecTV Stream ($90) | FuboTV ($70) | YouTube TV ($65) | Hulu with Live TV ($70) | Sling Blue ($35) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Bally Sports Arizona | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Atlanta Braves | Bally Sports South | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Baltimore Orioles | MASN | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Boston Red Sox | NESN | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Chicago Cubs | Marquee Sports Network | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Chicago White Sox | NBC Sports Chicago | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Cincinnati Reds | Bally Sports Ohio | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Cleveland Indians | Bally Sports Great Lakes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Colorado Rockies | AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Detroit Tigers | Bally Sports Detroit | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Houston Astros | AT&T SportsNet Southwest and Bally Sports Southwest | Yes | Yes (AT&T SportsNet Southwest) | No | No | No |
| Kansas City Royals | Bally Sports Kansas City | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Los Angeles Angels | Bally Sports West | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Spectrum SportsNet LA | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Miami Marlins | Bally Sports Florida | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Milwaukee Brewers | Bally Sports Wisconsin | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Minnesota Twins | Bally Sports North | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| New York Mets | SportsNet NY | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| New York Yankees | YES | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Oakland Athletics | NBC Sports California | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Philadelphia Phillies | NBC Sports Philadelphia | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| San Diego Padres | Bally Sports San Diego | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| San Francisco Giants | NBC Sports Bay Area | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Seattle Mariners | Root Sports Northwest | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Bally Sports Midwest | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Tampa Bay Rays | Bally Sports Sun | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Texas Rangers | Bally Sports Southwest | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Toronto Blue Jays | SportsNet | No | No | No | No | No |
| Washington Nationals | MASN | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Some key takeaways:
- The RSNs above are typically only available to local subscribers. Refer to the individual service’s details below to find out if you live in a place where you can receive a particular RSN.
- None of the (US-based) services carry the RSN for the Toronto Blue Jays.
- DirecTV Stream’s $90-a-month Choice package includes 28 of the 30 RSNs for baseball — all but the Phillies and aforementioned Blue Jays.
- It’s slim pickings for the other four services. FuboTV offers 10 RSNs for baseball, while Hulu Plus Live TV and YouTube TV offer only five. Sling TV doesn’t offer a single RSN.
- YouTube TV is the only service that carries MLB Network in its base package. The others either charge more or don’t carry it at all.
One other note: Fox Sports RSNs have been rebranded as Bally Sports, because the channels are no longer owned by Fox but Sinclair, which has since partnered with casino group Bally’s to rename them. So, what was once Fox Sports Ohio is now Bally Sports Ohio and so on.
If you are looking to watch your local team night in and night out, DirecTV Stream is your best bet. It offers by far the most RSNs of the live TV streaming services. Philadelphia and Toronto are the only MLB cities whose RSN is not offered on DirecTV Stream. FuboTV is second with 10 RSNs, giving you only a one-in-three chance of getting your local RSN to watch baseball.
DirecTV Stream is the priciest of the five major live TV streaming services, but it’s also the one with the most RSNs. Its cheapest, $70-a-month Entertainment package includes ESPN, Fox, FS1 and TBS. You’ll need to move up to the $90-a-month Choice plan to get MLB Network and any available RSN. You can use its channel lookup tool to see which local channels and RSNs are available in your area.
MLB.TV subscription: Best for out-of-market games
Major League Baseball’s official streaming service is great for following your favorite team if you live outside its TV market. Because of the 90-minute blackout described above, however, it’s much less useful for following your local home team.
MLB.TV subscribers also miss games that are broadcast nationally on ESPN, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS. Those games are blacked out on MLB.TV, which can be particularly irksome for fans of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and other big-market teams that are frequently selected for national broadcasts.
MLB.TV costs $130 for the season or $25 a month. You can also pay $110 to watch only your favorite team’s games. As a subscriber, you can watch out-of-market games live or on demand, and the in-market (home) team with a 90-minute delay from the end of the game.
With MLB.TV, you can also listen to home and away radio broadcasts. The radio broadcasts aren’t subject to the blackout rule, so you can listen to home team games live. MLB.TV also includes a ton of video content, including classic games, baseball documentaries and old This Week in Baseball episodes.
Even if you don’t subscribe, you can still watch baseball with the MLB app. It offers one Free Game of the Day that anyone can stream live for free.
Read our MLB.TV review.
ESPN’s stand-alone streaming service costs $6 a month or $60 a year and shows one game nearly every day of the six-month MLB season. The catch is that your local team’s games are blacked out when they appear on ESPN Plus, similar to MLB.TV. Also, the games shown on ESPN Plus are not exclusive to ESPN Plus and are also available on MLB.TV.
Read our ESPN Plus review.
Other options for nationally broadcast games
The following two newcomers each have deals with MLB to carry select games exclusively throughout the season.
Apple is getting into live sports streaming. It will stream a baseball doubleheader every Friday night this season on its Apple TV Plus service. Apple TV Plus costs $5 a month, but you’ll be able to watch live baseball games on Fridays without a subscription for free. Apple said that the games will be available to “anyone with internet access, for free, only on Apple TV Plus.” Better yet, the games will be free from blackout restrictions so you’ll be able to watch them no matter where you live and which teams are playing. The games are exclusive to Apple TV Plus, however, which means you won’t find them on your local RSN if your local team is playing.
Apple announced the schedule for the first 12 weeks of the season. The first two games happened April 8, so here’s the remaining schedule for April (all times ET):
Friday, April 15
- Tampa Bay Rays at Chicago White Sox, 7 p.m.
- Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10 p.m.
Friday, April 22
- St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds, 6:30 p.m.
- Texas Rangers at Oakland Athletics, 9:30 p.m.
Friday, April 29
- New York Yankees at Kansas City Royals, 8 p.m.
- Washington Nationals at San Francisco Giants, 10 p.m.
In an unusual timeslot for the league, Peacock will carry an early Major League Baseball game each Sunday of the regular season, starting on May 8. Of the 18 total games on the schedule first six at start at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT and the final 12 at noon ET/9 a.m. PT. Each game (except the first) is exclusive to Peacock.
Like some of Peacock’s other sports content, these MLB games won’t be included as part of its free tier. They’re reserved for Peacock Premium, which costs $5 per month. Here’s the full schedule.
Other live TV services
DirecTV Stream carries the most RSNs in its $90 tier but the services below also carry a few. If one of them has your home team, it could save you some money. The chart above has the details.
FuboTV costs $70 a month and offers 10 RSNs for baseball. It also includes ESPN, Fox and FS1 but not TBS. You can add the MLB Network for an extra $8 a month with the Fubo Extra Package or pay for the $80-a-month Elite streaming tier that includes Fubo Extra. Check out which local networks and RSNs it offers.
YouTube TV costs $65 a month and offers five RSNs for baseball, along with all five channels for national broadcasts. Plug in your ZIP code on its welcome page to see which local networks and RSNs are available in your area.
Hulu with Live TV costs $70 a month and carries five RSNs for baseball along with ESPN, Fox, FS1 and TBS, but not MLB Network. The service now also includes the Disney Bundle, which comes with ESPN Plus and Disney Plus. Click the “View all channels in your area” link at the bottom of its welcome page to see which local networks and RSNs are available where you live.
Sling Blue currently lacks a single RSN to watch baseball. You can, however, use Sling to watch national baseball broadcasts. Sling TV’s Orange plan includes ESPN, and the Blue plan includes Fox and FS1. Both plans offer TBS. The MLB Network is available as part of the Sports Extra add-on, which costs $11 a month for either the Blue or Orange plan or $15 for the combined Orange-and-Blue plan. The individual plans cost $35 a month each, and the Orange-and-Blue plan costs $50 a month. See which local channels you get with Sling Blue.
Each live TV streaming service offers a free trial, allows you to cancel anytime and requires a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.
Yankees games on Prime Video
For Yankees fans in the team’s market, Amazon will stream 21 Yankees games on Prime Video this season. While you don’t need to live in the Bronx to stream these games, the area where they’re available is limited — New York state, Connecticut, northeast Pennsylvania, and north and central New Jersey. You’ll need to be a Prime member, too. Amazon has yet to release the schedule, but the first game reportedly will be on Friday, April 22 against the Cleveland Guardians.
MLB At Bat add-on
The MLB At Bat app is great on phones and even better on tablets. If you bought an MLB.TV subscription (as outlined above), you can log in to your account and watch games live in the app. There is a cheaper subscription option for use with the mobile app only, but it’s limited in what it lets you watch.
You can buy an At Bat subscription via the MLB At Bat app. It costs $20 a year (or $3 a month) and lets you listen to the home or away radio broadcasts — baseball is the only sport I can listen to on the radio — and watch one game per day during the season. You can’t choose which game you want to watch; you’re stuck with the MLB.TV Free Game of the Day.