<p>NEW YORK — Baseball fans are streaming games in record numbers through the first three weeks of the season.</p>
<p>Major League Baseball said Monday that the first 18 days of the season have been the most watched in the 20-year history of the MLB.TV streaming package.</p>
<p>Fans have watched more than 1.34 billion minutes of live games on the platform, which is a 12% increase when compared to the first 18 days of last season and 43% growth compared to the same period two years ago. Out-of-market streaming is up 22% compared to last season and 35% from two years ago.</p>
<p>The seven most-watched days recorded on MLB.TV have come this season. Opening day on April 1 set the single-day record as users watched 121 million minutes of live games — up 26% from the previous high. </p>
<p>MLB Network also announced live games are up 12% compared to the first 15 days of last season.</p>
<p>Since opening day, the MLB app and MLB Ballpark app have been the first- and second-most downloaded sports apps on phones based on combined rankings on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. </p>
<p>MLB said 60% of all ticket scans have come from its Ballpark app, which is three times higher than two years ago. MLB and team accounts have a 19% increase in followers and a 16% increase in social engagements compared to the first two weeks of last season.</p>
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