Overview
- MLB reports the average nine‑inning game rose to 2 hours, 42 minutes this season, an increase of 3 minutes, 43 seconds from last year.
- The league says 61 seconds of the added time came from the Automated Ball‑Strike (ABS) challenge, which lets batters, catchers and pitchers appeal ball‑and‑strike calls to a computer review.
- Robot umpires were introduced this season and ABS has drawn significant praise for more consistent and accurate ball/strike rulings even as it modestly lengthened games.
- Prior rule and equipment changes, including the pitch clock and PitchCom, had sharply cut game times from over three hours in 2022 to as low as 2:36 in 2024.
- MLB will keep pitch‑clock rules for postseason play and the new data underline a key trade‑off for the sport between faster games and better officiating that could shape future rule decisions and fan experience.