I keep seeing people say that the upcoming eBaseball: Pro Spirit 2026 will give MLB The Show some real competition when it’s released this summer. And, in a vacuum, I get it.
Competition in the sports gaming space is a good thing. It pushes developers, raises standards, and ideally gives players more options. All of these things are good, and every consumer should want these things.
But, in this situation, we need to be honest about what this actually is. Pro Spirit 2026 will not be a true competitor to MLB The Show 26. Not in the way people are framing it, anyway.
And the biggest reason is likely the most obvious one.
The MLB License Is More Important Than You Think 
Image: Konami
The Pro Spirit series is built around NPB — Nippon Professional Baseball, the Japanese equivalent to Major League Baseball. That’s awesome if you’re into Japanese baseball. Seriously, it is. The league has a rich history, awesome crowds, and a style of play that is genuinely unique.
But for the overwhelming majority of players — especially in North America — MLB is the draw.
As shallow as it may sound, most players don’t just want “a baseball game.” They want their teams. Their players. Their stadiums. They want to boot up a Franchise mode and lead the Yankees to a World Series, rebuild the A’s, or run a game of Ranked Diamond Dynasty with a roster full of MLB stars they actually recognize.
That’s where MLB The Show still has an iron grip on the market. And that’s why all of this “competition” talk feels a little overblown.
Because this isn’t NBA Live vs. NBA 2K, or Madden vs. NFL 2K from back in the day. It’s not two games fighting over the same exact audience with the same exact licenses. In this case, it’s achieving two-way greatness with Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers against… hitting bombs with Kensuke Kondoh of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. These are two very different products aimed at overlapping (but not identical) player bases.
Now, could Pro Spirits 2026 be a great game? Absolutely! In fact, it probably will be. The trailer looks great, and from everything I’ve heard from players who have the patience to get around the region locking seen in previous entries, it has a great foundation in terms of graphics, presentation, and gameplay systems — if I had a PS5 or a capable PC, I’d be all over this.
But that still doesn’t make it a direct rival. If anything, Pro Spirits 2026 is more of a complementary experience than a competitor. It’s something for hardcore baseball fans or players looking for a different flavor of the sport.
Meanwhile, MLB The Show remains the mainstream, licensed, MLB-centric experience that most players will gravitate toward by default. We baseball nerds can be a very insular community and are often out of touch with the average gamer. Because if you think for a second that 15-year-old Jimmy is going to prefer a superior game to one that offers Ohtani and Aaron Judge, I have a beach-front bridge to sell you.
So yeah, competition is good. I’ll always root for more baseball games, not fewer. But let’s not pretend this is some head-to-head battle for the crown.
Because for most players, it really isn’t.