Major League Baseball said it has set several new league records for streaming of its live games during the start of the amended 2020 regular season.
During the first two weeks of the regular season, and despite a lengthy series of game postponements that are still being reconciled on the schedule, the league said it has seen 1.3 million total unique users for its MLB.TV out-of-market streaming package, 11 per cent over the comparable period in 2019, which was a record.
The service also record 12.8 million total games watched, up 12 per cent over 2019, and up by 7 per cent over the prior league record set in 2018.
MLB.TV during the first two weeks also generated 988.5 million total minutes watched, a total up by 32 per cent over the league’s prior highwater mark, set last year, for the comparable period.
All told, the league said more users are watching more games and for longer periods of time than any other 14-day period since it began live streaming games in 2002. Each of the streaming totals would have been even higher had the league not lost 22 games during that initial period due to team-level issues with Covid-19.
MLB, meanwhile, continues to battle with Covid-19 complications and the game schedule, as another positive test among the already afflicted St. Louis Cardinals led to the postponement of the August 7 game between the Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. The Cardinals have not played since July 29 due to the team’s outbreak.