The Best Baseball Video Games

The best baseball video games have a way of stirring the imagination. Whether it’s the pixelated players with their huge burly forearms and tiny stick-like legs or the hilarious names, the genre’s best titles have a unique ability to capture what makes baseball so special. With each evolution of console hardware, developers have tried to capture more and more of the sport’s nuances and appeal.

One of the first baseball video games to make a splash, R.B.I. Baseball (released in 1988) is often referred to as the first console sim. Its licensing with the MLB Players Association allowed it to include real player names, although it didn’t have a full roster of teams — instead, there were eight squads from cities like Boston and Detroit.

While the game’s graphics and gameplay weren’t cutting edge by any stretch of the imagination, it was fun and accessible to a wide audience. For the first time, gamers could save their progress and play the entire season – a feature that was soon copied by other titles including Baseball Stars, Bases Loaded, Major League Baseball, Tecmo Baseball, and Bo Jackson Baseball.

Ultimately, no title has captured the day-to-day hum of the baseball season quite like OOTP. Its robust simulation features a deep franchise mode that has been the envy of other developers and a career progression from the Minors to the Majors that feels like the gritty, gutsy dream nearly every fan has.