How MLB Ballpark became top-rated sports app

By David Adler | April 6, 2023

If you're going to an MLB game in 2023, there's a good chance you're going to use the MLB Ballpark app.

Ballpark -- MLB's mobile companion for fans attending games, with ticket access, ballpark check-ins, stadium info and more -- has become more integrated into the baseball game day experience, as digital ticketing has become the new standard.

And now, the MLB Ballpark app is one of the most-downloaded, most-used and top-rated sports apps.

That's a product of a half decade of investment into the app, with the goal of making it as easy as possible to plan for and attend a Major League Baseball game.

"The first priority for us was just getting the basics down: delivering tickets and being able to forward tickets," MLB chief operations and strategy officer Chris Marinak said. "It sounds easy, but when ticketing first went digital, flawless delivery was very challenging.

"After we were able to demonstrate to fans that digital ticketing works seamlessly to get them into the game, we started to work on the added features that could make their trip to the ballpark more enjoyable. This includes things like check-in offers, personally relevant notifications, and mobile food ordering that fans continually tell us significantly enhances their trip to the ballpark."

Here's how the MLB Ballpark app became one of the top sports apps in the App Store and what's new in the app for 2023.

The rise of the MLB Ballpark app

In 2022, the MLB Ballpark app became the No. 1 ranked sports app in Apple's App Store.

It was the top sports app from Opening Day through the summer. And its overall rating in the App Store increased to 4.7 out of 5 stars. That's where the MLB Ballpark app's rating currently sits, with over 404,000 ratings.

The number of fans using the MLB Ballpark app at MLB games has increased exponentially. And it starts with knowing who is attending a game in order for the app to be able to create a personalized experience for each fan. The number of unique fans in attendance who used their MLB account to go to a game -- either by scanning a ticket, checking in via the MLB Ballpark app or buying concessions from within the MLB Ballpark app -- more than doubled from 2019 to 2022.

"We create one single communication point for a fan, an MLB account," Marinak said. "It's a lot like how if you buy a plane ticket, you have a ticket with the airline and they know who you are and whether you're boarding the plane. Same thing with a ticket to the ballpark. We know when you're coming to a game and we can try to make sure you have a good experience when you get to the game."

During the 2022 season, there were 17.7 million of those unique fans in attendance, the ones using the MLB Ballpark app and their MLB account, in total across all MLB clubs. That was 5 million more unique fans than in 2021 -- and nearly 9 million more than in 2019, when there were 8.8 million unique fans in attendance.

The MLB Ballpark app has come a long way in those last few years. In 2019, the app had a 1.7 star rating in the App Store. But since then, MLB has succeeded in getting those two basics down -- delivering tickets and forwarding tickets -- with the ticketing technology the MLB Ballpark app uses developed chiefly by its in-house team.

The 2022 season was the MLB Ballpark app's most reliable and stable year for ticketing to date.

"We've seen exponential growth of fans using the MLB Ballpark app, with the pandemic having really accelerated the rate at which fans adopted digital tickets and other contactless experiences, such as mobile food ordering," said Karri Zaremba, MLB's senior vice president of product, ballpark experience and ticketing. "So, it was critical that the app's core features around accessing, managing, sharing and scanning digital tickets were not only quick and easy but extremely reliable and scalable for our millions of fans who rely on the app."

You can see that growth in the number of ticket scans alone -- 32 million MLB ticket scans came from the MLB Ballpark app last season. That marked a 42% increase from 2021, when there were 22 million tickets scanned from the app.

The MLB Ballpark app in 2023

On Opening Day, MLB had both of the top two sports apps in the App Store. The redesigned MLB app ranked No. 1. The MLB Ballpark app ranked No. 2, right behind it.

Both are rolling out a suite of new features this season. For the MLB Ballpark app, one of the biggest involves integrations with secondary ticket marketplaces.

MLB named SeatGeek as the league's exclusive fan-to-fan ticket marketplace this season. Fans will be able to list their tickets for sale directly from the MLB Ballpark app for the first time.

MLB is also expanding its ticket partners to include a network of as many authorized ticket marketplaces as possible to give fans the most options in terms of where they buy and sell their tickets.

"It's all tied back to an MLB account. So you have the ability to get access to those tickets within the MLB Ballpark app, universally," Marinak said. "Which is a positive for the fan -- they know where they can always access their ticket. I may have bought my ticket on SeatGeek, or StubHub, and I can access the ticket in those apps as well, but I know: No matter where I bought it, I can get it in Ballpark."

The new features in the MLB Ballpark app in 2023 are geared toward getting more tickets in the hands of more fans while also ensuring those tickets are verified. That means secure tickets with rotating barcodes (screenshots of tickets won't work at the gate).

New MLB Ballpark app users will also be able to see "pending" tickets in the app and be prompted to complete their account verification to access their tickets. Fans and organizations with large ticket orders will also have a tool to digitally distribute those tickets quickly and efficiently.

MLB's senior director of product for the MLB Ballpark app, Sahara Muradi, said the focus of the MLB Ballpark app this season is evolving it even further as a mobile companion for fans.

Once fans are at the game, the MLB Ballpark app will have new features to add to their experience -- such as real-time, personalized push notifications, based on who you are and which ballpark you're at, and tap stories that explain the new MLB rule changes for 2023.

"MLB is committed to providing fans with the best possible experience at the ballpark, and the MLB Ballpark app is a key part of that," MLB executive vice president of engineering and chief product officer Vasanth Williams said. "The app's new features help fans stay informed in real time and also make the most of their time at the ballpark."

Those features add to the game day experience enhancements that brought the MLB Ballpark app to the top of the App Store's sports category last year.

"It's one thing for a fan that goes to six, eight, 10 games a year -- they know where their seats are, they're a season ticket holder. But it's also about the casual fan who might go to one game a year and doesn't know where their seat is, doesn't know where the food is, doesn't know where to park, doesn't know which gate to go into," Marinak said. "We try to have tools in the app that help them have a much better experience of going to the ballpark, so they come out and say, 'Hey, that was a great time.' Meaning they want to come back again in the future."