The Highest Rated MLB The Show Games, Ranked

[Steve_OS]

The MLB The Show series is undoubtedly the most successful baseball gaming series on the market....

Written By: Uriel Nengi

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[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Every MLB The Show Ranked from Worst to Best

Other than 19 being my absolute most favorite, I can't even begin to rank them after that.
So I'm just going to do Pass/Fail, starting with MLBTS09, which was my introduction to The Show.
09-24 = Pass.

Ok, that was easy enough.

[Karle]

Re: Every MLB The Show Ranked from Worst to Best

I did not see any mention of MLB 21 which had the largest database of last name sound files (over 2000 more names than 24). It was back in those years with carryover saves (also not mentioned) that the creation of third party historic rosters was at its peak.

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Operation Sports mobile app

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Every MLB The Show Ranked from Worst to Best

I did not see any mention of MLB 21 which had the largest database of last name sound files (over 2000 more names than 24). It was back in those years with carryover saves (also not mentioned) that the creation of third party historic rosters was at its peak.

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Operation Sports mobile app

MLB 20 was the pinnacle of classic rosters. That all ended with 21's release despite the massive audio library.

I feel this article was kinda weak using simply using metacritic scores to rank.....meh.

Let's all discuss this. Here are my personal rankings starting with MLB09 which is where I first started playing The Show after a 5 year run with MVP 2005.


1. MLB 24 - Yeah that's right. There is no better playing baseball game IMO on the diamond than the most recent release. Yes it took several cycles to get here after the jump to PS5 but here we are and I expect 25 to take the #1 slot in short order. Even classic baseball plays amazingly well on 24. Hitting and fielding have never been better. And presentation is really polished.

2. MLB 20 - Before 24 this was all I was playing (save for one season of Yankees ball on MLB 23). Y2Y saves ended after 20 and there was a huge void in my heart. 21 simply flopped for my tastes in many ways. Well documented. But MLB 20 still holds up especially for Classic Roster junkies with over 80 incredible rosters. The vaults shut down so the end of an era firmly happened after that event. I have a now Year 8 Yankees Franchise running on this game that was carried over all the way back from MLB 17 with Y2Y. This was also the last year I played RTTS in earnest.

3. MLB 19 - Outstanding game in it's own right and the last game with two themes and MLBN to boot as a third theme. No 3 batter minimum either.

4. MLB 16 - Man this was such a great game at the time. I poured a ton of time into 16 and had an unforgettable fantasy franchise using the Cardinals and winning the World Series on a 19th inning Walk Off Bryce Harper HR.

5. MLB 23 - This was a marked improvement from the really sterile and uneven 22. Presentation got cleaned up really well. I am still unsure about the new scouting....it's not bad once you really understand how to be efficent with it.....but we still need expanded scouting beyond 3 scouts. It's just a little too simple for me.

6. MLB 18 - Three Themes for presentation and the improvements to catcher blocking and pitchers getting hit started here in earnest.

7. MLB 14 - The last of the old franchise mode with certain features that were removed and the introduction of Y2Y saves. A very solid game to this day

8. MLB 11 - A classic. It was the last iteration that we had "real time" presentation, all pre pitch routines from every batter, every throw back to the pitcher, every foul ball seen. This game marked the end of truly old school presentation where you took everything in. Also JethroTull and J Myers 1987 full minors rocked my world on 11

9. MLB 17 - The first real visual upgrade on the PS4 and the last time we had the older more immersive franchise hub before they would reskin franchise to the Phases tiles. The game itslef was fun and yeah it had some issues with far far too many foul pop outs, lousy catcher blocking, too many passed balls.....but I had fun with it.

10. MLB 09 - This was a huge upgrade for me coming from MVP 2005. I was blown away visually. This was a system seller as after 10 years I said goodbye to my PS2 forever.

11. MLB 15 - This was the year I played more online than I did offline. That has never happened since.....but we had a DD custom league where we did a card draft and had a great time playing online. A solid baseball game as well. And more importantly the arrival of licensed equipment.

12. MLB 13 - This was actually a ho hum release for me. Solid game but only lasted a cycle for me.

13. MLB 22 - Yeah...one of my two that did really nothing for me. But to get to 24 we had to have 22 and......

14. MLB 21 - My personal drink coaster.


So there we have it.

[ListenHeavy]

Re: Every MLB The Show Ranked from Worst to Best

Why are we ranking the same game since the inception of 'The Show'? Other than 1000x new animations no one notices anyway and a commentary change, everything else is the same.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Every MLB The Show Ranked from Worst to Best

Why are we ranking the same game since the inception of 'The Show'? Other than 1000x new animations no one notices anyway and a commentary change, everything else is the same.

This is the biggest fallacy I see year in and year out regarding MLBTS. While it's no doubt true the series has a definite and consistent bloodline that traces back to the very beginning, each year also has things that sets it apart from other years. I personally like MLBTS19 more than any of its successors because it has the old bullpen management rule in place. The one big thing that I like that's new since 19 that makes it impossible to just only keep playing MLBTS19 is the ''everybody plays everybody scheduling'' we now enjoy. The one thing that I like about MLBTS14 over MLBTS13 is I could finally set potentials where I thought they should be. I could go on and on indefinitely with how much MLBTS has evolved from 2006 to 2025, but its already well-documented so there's not much need.

Baseball IRL has these subtle changes from year to year that make each year unique and interesting and The Show captures that as well as if not better than anyone previously in the history of video games. Like I say, there are a ton of similarities running thru its family veins but that's also the case with IRL MLB.