The 2016 Major League Baseball season is about to kick off, and with it, fans of the game will not only take in games at the ballpark, and on television, but via streaming to mobile, computers, and other internet devices in increasing numbers above the expected market growth as cord-cutting and streaming begins to grab hold.
For fans of baseball, most know of MLB.com’s At Bat app for mobile. What they may not know is how much the app generates engagement in terms to total minutes streamed.
According to comScore, MLB’s At Bat for mobile had more minutes consumed in 2015 than all other U.S. official sports leagues apps combined. How many minutes? Try 8.4 billion. A total of 53% of total minutes consumed in the official apps of U.S. sports leagues in 2015 were in At Bat watching or listening to games.
To put this in perspective, At Bat was 7 of the top 10 months by total consumed minutes by U.S. sports league mobile apps.
Mobile App – Month - Total Minutes Consumed
- MLB.com At Bat - May - 1.38 billion
- MLB.com At Bat - April - 1.31 billion
- MLB.com At Bat - August - 1.22 billion
- MLB.com At Bat - June - 1.14 billion
- MLB.com At Bat - July - 955.17 million
- MLB.com At Bat - September - 852.71 million
- NFL.com Fantasy Football – October - 677.18 million
- MLB.com At Bat – March - 602.08 million
- NFL Mobile November - 528.47 million
- NFL.com Fantasy Football - September - 498.02 million
But in looking at the numbers closer, At Bat didn’t just beat the likes of the NFL, NBA, and NHL and their official mobile apps. They beat sports content aggregators such as Walt Disney-owned ESPN and Turner's Bleacher Report’s Team Stream apps when content is streamed there. In other words, Major League Baseball engagement streaming content by minutes tops the entire sports app ecosystem
Total Minutes Consumed (April-Sept 2015) - All Sports Apps
- At Bat - 6.9 billion
- ESPN - 6.1 billion
- Team Stream - 3.4 billion
- Yahoo Fantasy Sports - 2.2 billion
- WatchESPN - 1.8 billion
What does it all mean, and why does this matter?
At Bat recently surpassed the 50 million download mark, and was the top grossing sports app in the United States for the seventh straight year in 2015. Globally, At Bat reached the top grossing spot for sports apps in 97 different countries. So, while television continues to be where most fans get their baseball video content, a massive chunk is being seen streamed.
What’s more, while baseball has been seen as having fans over 50, the average age of At Bat users is in the 32-34 age bracket. This is significant as the core demo is not just Millennials, but Gen-Xers.
But if 8.4 billion minutes of streamed content seems like a staggering number, consider that it’s not out of the possibility for At Bat to hit 10 billion minutes in 2016. The reason is iOS 9 iPads support will now split-screen functionality with At Bat. So, minutes of multiple games will be consumed.
All this ties into ad dollars, on top of subscription fees, and the ability to do other purchases such tickets through At Bat.
Last year, MLB Advanced Media, the digital media company of the league, saw revenues of $800 million with a target of $1 billion by the end of this year, according to Bob Bowman, MLB’s President, Business & Media. While not every penny of that centers on At Bat for mobile, it comprises a large chunk of it.
The league will almost assuredly crack the $9.5 billion mark this year, if come exceptionally close to the $10 billion mark by the end of the year. The reasons largely center on the digital aspects of the league.
