MLB Hits a Home Run with Mobile App on Opening Day

While fans celebrated opening day, marking the start of another baseball season, MLB executives were having a celebration of their own as the official Major League Baseball app “At Bat” was accessed 6 million times on opening day alone. This number is more than twice the amount of users that accessed the same app on opening day last year, and significantly higher than other apps that the league has launched for baseball fans.

“The league has offered mobile apps for several years and has continued to attract new app users each season by experimenting with pricing structures, adding new features and most importantly, giving fans ways to access its live and archived content on a phone or tablet,” reports GigaOM.

“The audience has historically been made up of mostly iOS users, who account for 70 percent of the free At Bat app downloads and 85 percent of the paid app downloads,” the article notes. “But MLB’s Advanced Media office, which develops those apps, says Android use has been growing recently.”

The baseball mobile app audience is different than the TV viewing audience, since the apps are also accessed by fans attending games. According to MLB Advanced Media CEO Bob Bowman, the smartphone “is the first screen, not second screen” (especially for younger fans) and any app the league develops “has to have everything” in order to keep those fans engaged.

“Today MLB apps can be used as a mobile baseball ticket, and to check in, get coupons for merchandise, order food and even upgrade your seat during the gamewith MLB mobile apps — and, of course, to watch or listen to games when you’re not near a TV,” explains GigaOM.

According to Engadget, At Bat 13 has updated its features to include Game Day Audio, which can be used as a separate entity. The app also includes statistics, a video archive, individual team pages, updated news section interface, push notifications and much more.

“MLB.TV Premium subscribers again may upgrade to At Bat 13 for free on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices, unlocking all premium features,” explains the press release. “Fans also may subscribe to MLB.com At Bat 13 for the one-time annual fee of $19.99. iOS users may pay $2.99/month using the recurring billing option available through the App Store.”

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