INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Major League Baseball drew more than 71.4 million fans to ballparks this season, marking the sport’s longest attendance growth streak since 2005-07, and Indiana fans had plenty of reasons to watch, as two Hoosier-born sluggers delivered historic seasons.
Former Indiana University standout Kyle Schwarber blasted more than 50 home runs, joining Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Cal Raleigh in a season that tied the all-time record for most 50-homer hitters. Schwarber, who played for the Hoosiers before becoming a World Series champion, continued his reputation as one of the game’s most feared power bats.
Meanwhile, Colson Montgomery, of Southridge High School, established himself as one of the Chicago White Sox’s cornerstone players in just his first full season. The 23-year-old shortstop’s late-summer surge put him alongside legends like Jim Thome and Frank Thomas in the record books, underscoring his rise as Indiana’s next MLB star.
The league’s popularity wasn’t only about individual highlights. The average game time in 2025 was 2 hours and 38 minutes — the third consecutive season under 2:40 — fueled by the pitch clock and pace-of-play reforms. Only three nine-inning games lasted three and a half hours or longer, compared with nearly 400 in 2021.
Attendance milestones included the Los Angeles Dodgers surpassing 4 million fans for the first time in franchise history, while the San Diego Padres topped 3.4 million for the third straight year. The New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers all drew their biggest crowds in a decade or more.
National broadcasts also saw major boosts: ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” averaged its largest audience since 2013, while TBS and FOX posted their best numbers in more than a decade. MLB.TV shattered records with 19.4 billion minutes streamed — many featuring Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound and high-profile rivalry matchups.
The sport also is trending younger. The average age of single-game ticket buyers dropped to 43, down from 46 in 2023, while viewership among fans under 17 surged across all national networks.
And on the field, history piled up: A record seven players reached the 30-homer, 30-steal milestone; Ohtani became the first to hit 50 homers and strike out 50 batters in the same season; and Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes became the first 23-year-old pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA since Dwight Gooden in 1985.
For Hoosier baseball fans, the story of 2025 may well be Schwarber’s relentless power and Montgomery’s rapid ascent — proof that Indiana continues to make its mark on the national pastime.