Baseball fans eagerly awaiting the start of the 2025 MLB season were met with frustration instead of fastballs on Opening Day, thanks to MLB.TV.
For many users, the league’s streaming service crashed just as the first pitches were thrown on Thursday afternoon. This was reminiscent of the Netflix debacle during the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight.
According to TMZ, social media erupted with complaints about playback errors and endless loading screens, while Downdetector.com reported over 21,000 outages by early afternoon.
The outlet posted several screenshots of baseball fans on X complaining about the streaming issues, calling it “completely unacceptable.”
“Opening Day. All off-season. Billions of dollars,” one disgruntled fan wrote. “App doesn’t work, but you certainly took the subscription fee.”
MLB.TV Caught Stealing On Opening Day
MLB.TV charges $29.99 per month to bring fans games for all out-of-market teams. The yearly rate is $149.99.
It’s one thing for the service to go down unexpectedly throughout the year. But when you’ve had months to prepare for Opening Day, how does this even happen?
This isn’t the first time MLB.TV has stumbled—fans have long griped about its interface and blackout restrictions—but the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Fans spend months anticipating Opening Day. It’s the one day of the year when every team has a chance to kick off their season and do something special.
Instead, MLB.TV soured the excitement of a day meant to celebrate America’s pastime.
It’s completely unacceptable @MLBTV is down on #OpeningDay @MLBFanSupport pic.twitter.com/jHfdpGRbX0
— Mike Nichols 💯 (@michealnichols) March 27, 2025
RELATED: Dan Patrick Rips MLB For Having Opening Day Baseball Overseas In Japan
Opening Day Troubles
Major League Baseball has had issues with this year’s Opening Day offerings, with fans and broadcasters taking notice.
Seasoned sports talk host Dan Patrick ripped MLB for its decision to kick off the 2025 season with the Dodgers-Cubs Tokyo Series, saying it belongs in America.
Patrick pointed to the absurdity of teams jetting off mid-spring training for actual games, only to return and chill before the stateside opener on March 27th.
“Do I want us exporting Opening Day? I don’t. I understand its business,” he said. “Certainly, with the Dodgers and the number of players, whether it’s Korea, whether it’s Japan — I get it. I understand it. I don’t like it, but I understand it.”
"How about we think of the players?"
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) March 18, 2025
– DP on MLB's Opening Day in Japan today. pic.twitter.com/yydyfNLtKw
Fans also heavily criticized MLB for turning a perfectly clear video of instant replays into a video game rendering during their Opening Day broadcasts and then insisting it was super-awesome.
You have to give them a little credit, though. The league is continually tweaking its product to make it more palatable to today’s fans.
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