The coronavirus pandemic caused Major League Baseball games to be put on hold, and sports-starved fans flocked to the MLB The Show Players League, as MLB said there were over 32 million video views of related streams and content across the league’s and its teams’ social and owned-and-operated platforms.
Select games from the final 10 days of the tournament—organized by MLB, the Major League Baseball Players Association and Sony Interactive Entertainment—made it to the television screen, as well, as matchups were aired by networks including ESPN, ESPN2, FS1 and MLB Network.
The tournament featured 30 players, one from each club, in a round-robin format, with the regular season consisting of 29 three-inning games. The games were livestreamed on platforms including Twitch and YouTube, and a variety of content and related viewing experiences was available on platforms including Facebook and Twitter, as well as Sony San Diego’s Twitch page and players’ individual social feeds.
Participating players saw bumps on Instagram, as well. Champion Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays grew his Instagram following by 12%, while runner-up Lucas Giolito of the Chicago White Sox enjoyed a 7% gain.
Niko Goodrum of the Detroit Tigers led participating players in percentage of Instagram followers gained, at 33%, while Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres tallied the largest follower jump, 17,000.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada scored, as well, with $5,000 going to affiliates in each team’s community on behalf of the participating player, and an additional $25,000 for the affiliate in winner Snell’s community.
