The newest MLB digital collectibles for 2023
There's a whole new lineup of digital collectibles that baseball fans can get this season.
MLB is continuing to partner with Candy Digital, and this year the collectibles include commemorative game tickets, Candy's flagship player ICONs and more.
Fans can find Candy's digital MLB collectibles at www.candy.com/mlb.
Commemorative tickets
The unique digital commemorative tickets for 2023 will be available to fans attending select MLB games, and they offer a new way to collect baseball memorabilia.
"We've seen a lot of really good progress with the commemorative ticket as an NFT or a digital product," MLB chief operations and strategy officer Chris Marinak said at the league's 2023 Innovation and Fan Engagement Showcase before Opening Day. "I would say commemorative ticketing is one of the big areas where you'll see a focus from us this year."
Last season, almost 200,000 commemorative tickets were collected by fans for games they attended.
"At the World Series or the postseason last year, as soon as you checked into the game within the Ballpark app, you'd get an email to go get your commemorative NFT ticket," Marinak said. "That's a great product to put on social media or to otherwise keep in your collection."
The types of commemorative tickets issued last season:
- Season ticket NFTs -- Given to season ticket-holding fans for select clubs and updated with season stats
- Special Promo NFTs -- MLB teams could select up to two games where they would release a commemorative ticket available for free to all fans in the ballpark that day
- Postseason NFTs -- Commemorative tickets issued for all postseason games and available for free to all fans in the ballpark
Those ticket mementos will be back again in 2023.
MLB Showstopper ICONs and Team Packs
MLB fans can also collect NFTs of their favorite players with MLB Showstopper ICONs -- dynamic digital trading cards of Major League stars.
On Opening Day, Candy launched a Showstopper ICON lineup of 43 superstar players, including Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Julio Rodríguez, Mookie Betts, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Francisco Lindor and a whole lot more.
The Showstopper ICONs include "Legendary" 1-of-1 parallels of each player, "Epic" versions numbered to 40 and "Rare" versions numbered out of 100.
Candy is also offering Team Packs of ICONs, which let fans collect players from their favorite teams.
The first Team Packs drop on April 17 at 1 p.m. ET, and include three ICONs per pack.
2023 MLB Highlights
Candy is also launching 2023 MLB Highlights -- official, MLB-licensed video collectibles that will capture this season's greatest moments.
There will be exclusive packs of Highlights created throughout the season, containing top plays and historic milestones from current stars and MLB legends.
As part of Candy Digital's partnership with MLB and the Hall of Fame, those historical Highlights collectibles will feature baseball icons like Ken Griffey Jr., Johnny Bench, Tom Seaver and George Brett.
The 2023 MLB Highlight NFTs will include:
- "Plays of the Week" -- 10 plays will be chosen for Highlights packs every week
- "This Month in Baseball" -- Highlights of historical moments, released monthly and alternating between current MLB players and Hall of Famers
- "Milestone Marks" -- Unique, limited-edition collectibles will be released for both historic individual accomplishments (think Miguel Cabrera's 3,000th hit last season) and team feats (like the Mets' combined no-hitter) as they happen throughout the 2023 season
"We couldn't be more excited to build on our successes of the previous MLB season by introducing a series of innovative new products and engagements," Candy Digital CEO Scott Lawin said in a statement. "Day by day, digital collectibles are becoming more immersed in America's most cherished pastime, and we're thrilled to be paving the way with our partners."