As someone who follows baseball, I know there’s nothing quite like MLB’s grueling 162-game regular season. I never want to miss a single pitch, and thankfully there are several ways to catch every game. I have all the details below.
In a hurry? If you just want to start watching MLB, these three services will do that and provide good overall viewing options:
- Fubo: Get 150+ sports-heavy live TV channels with a broad selection that appeals to everyone. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.
- DIRECTV STREAM: Get all the RSNs in your area to watch MLB, NBA, and NHL. A 5-day free trial is now available for DIRECTV STREAM.
- Hulu Live: Comes with 95+ live TV channels along with Disney+ and ESPN+. Try the Hulu Live free 3-day trial.
Table Of Contents
It’s a whole new world for baseball fans. It used to be a question of what games you could watch without cable. Now only cord-cutters have full access to the MLB schedule.
Today I will be taking a look at the channels that will be bringing you MLB action all season long as well as the various ways that you can watch baseball both at home or on the go.
Today’s MLB Games
None
How MLB Is Broadcast
Major League Baseball was around long before TV or even radio. This, combined with the 162 games each team plays per season, makes for a complicated system of game broadcasting.
There are almost 5,000 games played in the regular MLB season each year. The good news is that all the games are broadcast. But where?
Nationally Televised Games
Almost all days of the regular season, there is at least one MLB game being nationally broadcast. And most days it’s more — often as many as four or five. Most often, it’s two.
Lucky for cord-cutters, the games are broadcast on major channels that are supported by the top streaming services:
- ESPN: Show a wide selection of games — sometimes back-to-back — on their main channel. Games also air on ESPN2.
- Fox: Features night games on local Fox affiliate channels.
- FS1: The main Fox Sports channel where all its MLB games go.
- MLB Network: Far and away the place to watch nationally televised games.
- TBS: Shows a number of games throughout the season and then a lot of playoff games.
Note that a couple of specialty streaming services are exclusively airing MLB games this year. Peacock will not be presenting games this year. But Apple TV+ will be presenting Friday Night Baseball — a doubleheader event. ESPN+ will also feature many games as in previous seasons.
Regionally Televised Games
Even with the hundreds of nationally televised games, there are still thousands of baseball games each year that are broadcast by regional sports networks (RSNs). If you are a fan of a team across the nation, you can use a service like MLB.TV. But if you are a fan of the home team, you need access to its RSN.
To see if your local team is included with a streaming service, see the following table. Note that RSNs are only provided in the DIRECTV STREAM Choice plan ($114.99/month) and above. The RSNs are included with the base plans from Fubo ($79.99/month) and Hulu + Live TV ($82.99/month).
| Team (RSN) | DIRECTV | Fubo | Hulu |
| Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB.TV) | ❌ | 💲 | ❌ |
| Cleveland Guardians (FanDuel Sports Great Lakes) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Baltimore Orioles (MASN) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Boston Red Sox (NESN) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Chicago Cubs (Marquee Sports Network) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Chicago White Sox (Chicago Sports Network) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Cincinnati Reds (Bally Sports Ohio) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Detroit Tigers (FanDuel Sports Detroit) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Colorado Rockies (MLB.TV) | ❌ | 💲 | ❌ |
| Kansas City Royals (FanDuel Sports Kansas City) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Houston Astros (Space City Home Network) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Los Angeles Angels (FanDuel Sports West) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Miami Marlins (FanDuel Sports Florida/Sun) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Los Angeles Dodgers (Spectrum SportsNet LA) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Milwaukee Brewers (FanDuel Sports Wisconsin) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Minnesota Twins (FanDuel Sports North) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| St Louis Cardinals (FanDuel Sports Midwest) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| New York Mets (SportsNet New York) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| New York Yankees (YES Network) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Oakland Athletics (NBC Sports California) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Philadelphia Phillies (NBC Sports Philadelphia) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pittsburgh Pirates (SportsNet Pittsburgh) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| San Diego Padres (MLB.TV) | ❌ | 💲 | ❌ |
| San Francisco Giants (NBC Sports Bay Area) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Seattle Mariners (Root Sports Northwest) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Tampa Bay Rays (FanDuel Sports Florida/Sun) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Texas Rangers (FanDuel Sports Southwest) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Texas Rangers (Bally Sports Southwest) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Toronto Blue Jays (MLB.TV) | ❌ | 💲 | ❌ |
| Washington Nationals (MASN) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
As you can see, if you’re a Giants fan in San Francisco, you can go with any of these three streaming services. The same goes for Mets fans in New York. But Dodgers fans in Los Angeles? You need to go with DIRECTV STREAM.
Streaming MLB Without Cable
There are various ways to live stream MLB. Which way you choose will depend upon exactly what you are looking for. Since most fans will want to watch their hometown teams locally,I’ll highlight those services that allow that.
| Service | Price | Channels | Review |
 | $79.99/month | 150+ | Fubo |
 | $86.99/month | 90+ | DIRECTV |
 | $82.99/month | 95+ | Hulu |
 | $82.99/month | 100+ | YouTube |
 | $60.99/month | 50+ | Sling |
Streaming Features
All the streaming services above provide app for the most popular devices in use today. The following are universally supported: Amazon Fire TV, Android Mobile, Android TV-based smart TVs, Apple TV, Chromecast, iOS (eg, iPhone), Roku, Samsung TVs, and web browsers. Also widely (but not universally) supported are gaming systems (eg, Xbox) and other smart TVs (eg, Vizio).
Each service comes standard with a cloud DVR. In fact, other than Sling TV, they all provide unlimited storage. You can also stream on multiple devices at the same time with these services.
Note that you can watch MLB Game of the Week Live on YouTube. Roughly once a week, MLB streams a live game that anyone can watch for free!
MLB.TV
For some fans, MLB.TV is an essential service. It allows you to watch most MLB games live for $29.99/month. It is also available as an add-on with Fubo and Sling TV.
The problem is that there is a blackout delay for all in-market games — those (home and away) that involve your home team. So you have to wait an hour and a half after the game has ended to watch it.
Additionally, all nationally televised games are blacked out. This also means the service is limited to regular-season games. So you will also need access to a streaming service for those games.
Still, MLB.TV can be a good deal if you don’t mind the restrictions. And subscribers can get a cheaper price if they are only interested in the games of a single team.
How to Watch Your Favorite MLB Teams
For information on streaming a specific team, see the following articles:
American League
East
Central
West
National League
East
Central
West
Our Choice
True MLB fanatics should get a streaming service that offers the RSN for their local team and MLB.TV for all the other teams. As a result, I recommend Fubo because you can get that all together. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.
FAQs
What is the cheapest way to watch MLB?
The cheapest way to watch MLB is to set up an antenna and get it free when games stream on local Fox affiliates. Sling TV allows you to do this easily by including a free antenna (if you pay for two months in advance). And your antenna channels can be integrated with its streaming channels, which, with Sling Orange, include ESPN and TBS.
Does ESPN+ have all MLB games?
ESPN+ is a great deal for sports fans at $10.99/month. But it doesn’t offer all the MLB games. It does however offer roughly one MLB game every day of the regular season. This is somewhat more than the number of games ESPN itself broadcasts so it’s worth considering.
How can I watch the World Series?
The 2025 World Series will air exclusively on Fox. This is great news for fans because Fox is included in the base plans of all the major streaming services. It also means that you should be able to watch it in HD with a TV antenna. You won’t, however, be able to watch the World Series with MLB.tv since it doesn’t stream any post-season games.
My expertise in sports coverage, particularly for out-of-market games and regional sports networks, stems from years of hands-on experience as an early adopter of streaming services and my work addressing fans' viewing challenges. As a longtime cord-cutter and subscriber to multiple streaming platforms, I combine my technical knowledge with practical user experience, making me a leading expert in the field of sports streaming and entertainment technology.
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