When you first watch a movie on a VR Big Screen, your first thought will likely be, “Holy cow, I wonder if I can watch baseball like this?”
And the answer is Yes! It’s possible to watch MLB games in VR; however, it’s not necessarily easy. Here are the ways I’ve found to make it work.
Download the MLB.TV VR App
If you’re on an Oculus, MLB.TV has a VR app you can use to watch the games with your MLB.tv subscription.
The app has abhorrent ratings (as of this writing). That said, most pro sports leagues don’t have a VR app at all. This apps worth checking out (in case they update it in the future). Particularly if you already have an MLB.TV subscription.
That said, there are other ways to watch baseball in VR if this one doesn’t work for you.
Try The ESPN+ App
Oculus has an ESPN+ app (with better rating than the MLB.TV app) that shows some live games. You’ll need cable or a login to get access. You’ll also need your preferred content to be playing on ESPN. But if you have all those things, it’s a good option.
Remote Desktop Into Your PC / Mac
I wrote an entire article about writing code while in VR by using the Immersed app to remote desktop into your computer.
This option is interesting. Any game you can pull up on your computer becomes accessible in virtual reality (on as big a screen as you like). Heck, an app like Immersed even lets you invite friends to hang out in your private room. Here’s me watching a football game like this, it’s kind-of fun to watch the game in a cave.
So the real question becomes, “how do you get access to MLB games on your computer.” Here are a handful of options that will actually work (though most aren’t free).
- MLB.TV (the app is so lowly rated watching online may be preferable)
- YouTube TV (although you can only see local games).
- Sling TV (You’re also limited to local games).
- Connect Your Cable Package To Your Computer (Either Via an App or HDMI cable if you already pay for cable).
My personal favorite way to go about this is to just pay for the MLB.TV subscription. It’s a pain to have another bill, but it’s honestly far superior to what several other sports leagues offer for viewing games.
Try The Oculus or Firefox VR Web Browser
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of downloading some type of remote desktop app you can attempt to load up MLB.TV through a VR Web Browser. Specifically the Oculus browser or Firefox VR Web Browser.
Many websites either block these browsers or don’t function well with them. It’s why I didn’t list this option higher. That said, if you can get it to work in a browser, that will be easier than setting up a remote desktop to watch the games over your computer.
Does The MLB Offer 360° VR Baseball Content?
If you have a VR headset, I highly recommend downloading the YouTube App and watching my favorite VR YouTube videos. 360° degree content in VR is a crazy experience.
That said, I couldn’t find any live 360° content that the MLB is streaming (this may change in the future). However, I did find this cool YouTube video of the 2018 home run derby that’s worth watching. It gives you an idea of what the future might look like.
Conclusion: Is Watching Baseball on The Quest 2 Worth It?
For me, the resolution on the Quest 2 isn’t high enough for me to prefer watching baseball in VR over a traditional television just yet. That said, higher resolution VR headsets are dropping in 2022, which promise to fix that problem.
So we’re not quite there yet. That said, I do think watching sports in VR is going to become an ideal way to consume the content over the next 5 years. Good luck!