Now reporting to camp: MLB.com At Bat.
The eighth-year veteran and the highest-grossing sports app for a record seven straight years made its 2016 debut Friday as a Spring Training update on millions of phones and tablets everywhere, just ahead of the first Cactus League and Grapefruit League action.
Developed by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, At Bat returns with new features and technology built for fans, who in 2015 set At Bat records with 13.1 million downloads (21 percent increase over 2014) and 1.7 billion app starts (40 percent increase). Globally, At Bat reached the top-grossing spot for sports apps in 97 countries.
In fact, there is a strong likelihood that you are reading this via At Bat right now -- and ready to heed that notification of your much-anticipated annual update. Here were some of the highlights from 2015 to remind you how millions of fans follow baseball these days.
Engagement: Fans consumed a record 8.4 billion minutes in At Bat last year. During the regular season, At Bat recorded the most total minutes of any app across the entire sports category. Jump back into #AtBat conversation on social media -- and see update reactions.
Global Growth: For the first time in 2015, millions of Spanish-speaking baseball fans around the world had access to a fully native language At Bat experience. The top countries for Spanish-speaking At Bat users outside the U.S. were: 1. Venezuela, 2. Dominican Republic, 3. Mexico and 4. Puerto Rico. More than one million Spanish-speaking users downloaded At Bat after the new feature launched for Opening Day 2015.
Apple Watch: This device launched shortly after last Opening Day, and At Bat became an instant gratification to its new owners. During the 2015 season, fans accessed 26 million Glances to quickly check live-game scores, pitch tracking, standings, stats and many other features available with At Bat for Apple Watch.
The app's new features for 2016 include portrait and landscape orientations (iPad only); multitasking split view (select iPads only); picture-in-picture streaming for live video and highlights (select iPads only); redesigned Gameday, News Reader, Videos, Sortable Stats and more (iPhone, iPad); an app redesign to support material design guidelines (Android phones and tablets); and a new UI experience for League and Team News readers (Android phones and tablets).
Regular season and additional new features will be available before Opening Day, and there are plenty of Spring Training features you can enjoy in the meantime.
For example, you can watch live streaming of more than 275 available Spring Training games with an MLB.TV Premium subscription (iPhone, iPad, select Android phones and tablets, Kindle Fire, Fire Phone), and listen live to available Spring Training radio broadcasts (all supported devices).
The first time you find yourself listening to Vin Scully, John Sterling, Mike Shannon, Marty Brennaman or another favorite voice of summer, while you are grocery shopping or away from computer or TV, you will fully realize the game is back.
At Bat Premium subscribers get multiplatform live audio access (portable to Mac or PC with a valid MLB.com account) and universal support with accessibility on iPhone, iPad and other supported smartphones and tablets.
On all supported devices, you can track batter-by-batter action for every Spring Training game; comb through sortable batting, pitching and fielding statistics; stay on top of breaking news; see schedules, interactive rosters and player stats for every team; and watch the classic games video archive, featuring dozens of baseball's most legendary games.
On all supported smartphones, you can customize At Bat's home screen to feature your favorite team and access a video library archive, searchable by player, team or keyword. You also can enjoy a search function for all active and historic MLB player cards, see closed captioning for live video, and choose Spanish language anywhere in the world, as long as the device language is set to Spanish.
Want to watch MLB Network on your app? Just authenticate once by selecting your pay-TV provider, and suddenly you have the "MLB Tonight" crew live from Studio 3 or "Intentional Talk" with Chris Rose and Kevin Millar to hit hot topics and talk to special guests.
For Android phones, you can get a favorite team icon home screen widget for one-click access to that team's At Bat homepage.
Once again, MLB.TV Premium subscribers will receive a free upgrade to the complete suite of At Bat's premium features. Fans also may subscribe to MLB.com At Bat and have access to its premium features on the Apple App Store or Google Play for a yearly subscription of $19.99, covering more than 2,500 live MLB games in 2016 from Spring Training through Opening Day to the World Series. Subscribers also may pay $2.99/month with the recurring billing offering.
With an At Bat subscription, users will have multiplatform live audio access for portability to take home, away and Spanish-language audio feeds to desktop and laptop computers. Subscribers also will be able to get full premium feature access across iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, supported Android smartphones and tablets and Amazon Kindle Fire and Fire Phone.