Every February, like clockwork, baseball fans start downloading apps ahead of the new season. But this year the surge is noticeably bigger, and it's showing up across every corner of the sport.
The MLB app pulled in an estimated 221K downloads this February, up from 155K last year and 119K in 2024. That's a clear upward trend - each February is bigger than the last. Revenue tells a slightly different story. An estimated $3.5M in net revenue this February is a strong number, but it's roughly where it was in February 2024 before dipping to $2.3M last year. Downloads are setting records. Revenue is recovering.
MLB Ballpark, the companion app for mobile tickets and stadium experiences, hit an estimated 220K downloads this February - its best pre-season yet. That's up from 116K last year, though 2025 was actually a down year (Feb 2024 saw 166K).
I initially wondered if MLB had started requiring the app at more stadiums, but that doesn't appear to be new. More and more stadiums have been pushing digital-only entry over the past few years, so this isn't a sudden mandate - it's a continuation of a trend. The fact that downloads surpassed even 2024 suggests more people are planning to attend games earlier in the pre-season.
Spring training kicked off in mid-February, and with the season opener on March 27, this is the window when fans buy tickets and get set up.
It's not just the pros seeing a pre-season spike, though the next app has little to do with the MLB itself. GameChanger is a youth sports app that lets parents live-stream their kids' games, track stats, and manage teams. It hit an estimated 441K downloads and $7M in net revenue this February, both up roughly 50% from a year ago.
February is when parents sign kids up for spring leagues and start paying for premium features like live streaming and stat tracking. GameChanger has figured out how to monetize that seasonal surge, and the numbers show it's working.
The MLB app and Ballpark both point in the same direction - more fans engaging digitally and planning to show up in person ahead of opening day on March 27. GameChanger tells a parallel but separate story about youth sports growing on its own. Different audiences, different business models, but the same trend: baseball at every level is having a strong pre-season on mobile.
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