According to 9to5Mac, a Bloomberg report using data from research firm Antenna reveals that sports, specifically Major League Baseball, was the biggest driver of new Apple TV+ signups for a six-month period from April to September 2025. The top signup event was a single May game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. In fact, individual MLB games accounted for six of the top ten subscription drivers in that span, outperforming premier Apple originals like The Morning Show and the new comedy Your Friends & Neighbors. The data underscores the powerful, event-driven nature of live sports for streaming services, though it notes baseball fans were less likely to retain their subscriptions long-term compared to those who signed up for scripted content.
The sports playbook is working
Here’s the thing: this isn’t a fluke, it’s a strategy. Apple has been quietly building a sports portfolio for a while now. They started with MLB’s “Friday Night Baseball,” they’ve got the MLS, and they’re deep into Formula 1 with the *Drive to Survive*-style docuseries. This data from Antenna proves the bet is paying off in raw subscriber acquisition. A single game can act like a massive, weekly marketing funnel. Think about it—how many other types of content have that kind of built-in, time-sensitive urgency? You either watch the game live or you miss it. That’s a powerful incentive to hit “subscribe.”
But what about keeping them?
Now, the big asterisk. As the report points out, the churn rate for these sports-driven signups is higher. Someone tunes in for Dodgers-Yankees, then cancels a week later. That’s the classic sports fan dilemma for a streamer without a deep sports bench. But Apple seems to be playing the long game. Next year, they’re bundling full access to MLS and Formula 1 alongside MLB at no extra cost on the Apple TV+ tier. The goal is clear: create a sticky bundle of year-round sports. If a subscriber comes for baseball but stays for soccer and F1, that’s a win. It transforms Apple TV+ from a “maybe I’ll binge *Severance* later” service into a weekly utility.
Shifting the streaming game
This really changes the narrative around Apple TV+. For years, the story was about high-quality, award-bait shows like Ted Lasso and Severance. And those are still important for prestige and retention. But sports is the growth hack. It puts Apple in direct competition with the YouTube TVs and FuboTVs of the world for the live-TV audience, but at a fraction of the price. At $5.99 a month, it’s an impulse buy for a fan. The challenge now is content density. Can shows like the new drama Chief of War or the comedy Stick convince the sports fans to stick around on off-days? That’s the billion-dollar question. Basically, Apple might have just found its most reliable subscriber engine, and it’s not in a writers’ room—it’s on a baseball diamond.
