Exciting news, baseball fans: Netflix will exclusively stream the Major League Baseball 2026 season opener, a bicoastal match-up between the New York Yankees vs. the San Francisco Giants, as part of a new three-year deal between MLB and the streaming service. Scheduled for March 25, 2026, the kickoff primetime game will mark Netflix’s first exclusive MLB broadcast.
As reported The Athletic, the NY versus SF showdown will be the only game scheduled for the day, with the rest of the clubs opening on March 26.
As part of the three-year agreement, Netflix will also have streaming rights to other big-name baseball events, including the Home Run Derby, which has traditionally been broadcast on ESPN. However, the juggernaut streaming service will share other special-event games with other platforms like NBC and Peacock, including “Field of Dreams,” “MLB at Rickwood Field” and the “MLB Speedway” game on the infield of Bristol Motor Speedway. (Those events were aired by FOX Sports in the past.) NBC/Peacock will be the new home of Sunday Night Baseball and the first round of the playoffs.
While you’ll need a Netflix subscription — currently priced at “Standard with Ads” for $7.99/month, “Standard” for $17.99/month, and “Premium” for $24.99/month for the U.S. market — to tune in live for Opening Day 2026, baseball fans will still be able to tune into regular-season games on regional sports broadcasts. The Yankees on YES Network, for example. New York fans will also see 20 Yankee games streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video next year, so if you’re a diamond diehard, that’s yet another streaming service you’ll need to add to your bench.
It’s not the first time that Netflix has secured coveted exclusive access to big-deal sports games: The streamer also has exclusive rights to the National Football League’s Christmas Day games this year, as well as the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cups in the U.S. and Canada, and the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Japan.
Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
