MLB: The Show, also called MLB The Show or simply MLB is a series of licensed baseball-themed sports video games licensed by Major League Baseball, developed by San Diego Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for various gaming systems, primarily on the PlayStation brand of consoles. It is the successor of a previous MLB series developed by Sony's now-defunct 989 Studios, which ran from 1997 to 2006.
The current The Show series began development in 2006 by San Diego Studio, and is the primary franchise developed by San Diego Studio. MLB The Show features realistic simulations of baseball matches, allowing players to control one figure or an entire team. As an annualized sports game, MLB The Show features a different prominent baseball player on its cover art per year.
As a Sony-developed and published franchise, MLB The Show has been an exclusive release on Sony's PlayStation consoles since its inception in 2006 as well as its original incarnation in 1997. In December 2019, as a renewed contract between Sony and MLB, it was announced that MLB: The Show will expand into other platforms including Xbox consoles, beginning with 2021's MLB The Show 21. Non-PlayStation versions of the games are published by MLB's Advanced Media branch, which covers its internet and interactive businesses.
Reception to the MLB games has been historically positive; 989 Studios' incarnation of the series received largely favorable responses, while San Diego Studio's The Show receive generally positive reviews per year. Several entries within the series, most notably MLB 09: The Show, MLB 10: The Show and MLB 11: The Show, attained critical acclaim, and MLB: The Show is recognized as one of the best sports game franchises. The games are also commercially successful, with yearly releases selling approximately between 1 to 2 million copies.