Why Is Baseball So Boring? (7 Surprising Factors)

Baseball is a very popular sport with millions of players and fans in the United States and even globally. Therefore, there are as many opinions as there are people watching. I have explained why baseball is the best sport of all and why I like it so much, but people are cursing baseball and its boring game style. That being said, why is baseball so boring to some?

People consider baseball boring because of too long games that average three hours in length, slow game phase, and long seasons so it won’t be as exciting as when the season is fresh. Also, there can be long periods with no action, and the emphasis on home runs takes the joy away from everything else.

This, of course, is an opinion of some people that do, consider baseball boring. Whether you are one of those people is irrelevant because you will soon learn why baseball isn’t exciting to certain people. Without a further due, let’s take a closer look!

Related: Is Baseball A Contact Sport? (3 Contact Grades)

Why Is Baseball So Boring?

Generally, there are seven main reasons why people consider baseball boring. Other reasons may be behind the feeling, but it’s one or many of the following reasons in most cases.

1. Too Long Game Lenght

One of the biggest reasons baseball is seen as boring for many is the very long game times. Compared to sports like ice hockey, lacrosse, or even soccer, the match times are far less than baseball.

The average baseball game length is over 3 hours in the MLB, which is double the time of a soccer match, which is considered long by many. Ice hockey and lacrosse are both only a total of 60 minutes and will end there with a slight overtime capability.

However, baseball games can last indefinitely in theory, so it doesen’t surprise me that it can get boring. By the way, the longest baseball game was over 11 hours, so that is an amount where even the biggest fan would want to go home without talking about the players.

2. Long Season Lenght

Speaking of length and baseball, the games aren’t only long things in the sport. The seasons are long, which can take the specialty and expectation out of it.

Generally, the MLB season lasts approximately six months with over 2400 total games played, and that doesen’t include the postseason. It’s safe to say that there is so much baseball that it would be impossible to consume even a fraction of it.

Considering that baseball is on most of the time in a year, and there are a lot of baseball games in a season, it can make it boring for some people, even me sometimes.

3. Slow Game Phase

Hockey, boxing, lacrosse, and similar sports have a fast tempo, contact, and many things going on. On the other hand, baseball isn’t as fast, contact-rich, and full of events. Thus, people who have watched more incident-rich sports may find baseball dull.

The nature of baseball is a bit slow, and the lack of constant happenings can turn people off.

However, baseball isn’t incident poor either as there are cool slides, powerful swings, and badass catches happening, yet they don’t come as frequently as in other sports.

4. Periods With No Action

Baseball indeed has fascinating moments that will be remembered forever. For example, Hank Aaron’s 715th home run broke the former world record made by Babe Ruth, or ”The Catch’ made by Willie Mays. Yet, there are huge amounts of time with no action whatsoever.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that 90% of baseball is simply standing around, which can become boring if you can believe it. So, assuming that a baseball game lasts 3 hours, 2 hours, and 42minutes is action less standing around, and only 18 minutes is fascinating.

5. Low Amount of Celebration

If you’re a baseball fan and see a ”low amount of celebration”, you will know that it’s untrue on some occasions. Baseball fans and players celebrate in important games and situations; however, the amount is far less when compared to other sports, on average.

Given that there are over 2400 baseball games in an MLB season and that the teams play against the same teams many times over, the celebrations aren’t as frequent as, let’s say, in football, soccer, or basketball.

In addition, most baseball games are half-full anyway because the teams play constantly, so only important games are packed in full. You might know that the vibes on a half-full stadium are ten times less than in a full house on an important gameday.

In conclusion, people watching baseball might find the celebrations lame if they visit a lot in other sports and their games.

6. Home Runs are Everything

Home runs are the bread and butter of baseball. I talked about not cheering above, but when a home run is about to occur, both the players and fans will cheer for a good cause!

When it comes to peaks in life in general and in-home runs in baseball, everything else is lesser when compared to the peak. Thus, home runs kind of take away for the joy of the sport overall, as the emphasis is so great on home runs.

So when there are no home runs, there is a lot more boredom and frustration.

7. No Enough Knowledge About Baseball

Probably the most common reason someone doesen’t like baseball and finds it boring is the lack of knowledge about it. Naturally, if you see baseball players standing, swinging, and sliding on the bases without knowing strategies and why they are making a certain move, it can be boring.

However, if you are immersed in baseball, know the rules, and have spent time amongst it by playing or watching, you will look at it in a whole different way.

That’s why people who doesen’t consider baseball their number one sport can find it boring and most likely do. However, people that live and breathe baseball and know all about it can’t find it boring because, in that case, it isn’t.

Now that you know why people might consider baseball boring, you should guess and ask why next time you see someone expressing their feelings towards the sport. I’m quite confident that it will be one of the seven reasons listed above!

Now, let’s dive deeper into the popularity of baseball and see whether it’s decreasing participation and fan views or whether it’s just a rumor.

Is Baseball Losing Popularity?

There has been talking about baseball and its decreasing popularity. I wanted to reveal the truth, whether it was true or not, and so, I dived deep into data and statistics. Here is what I found.

In short, baseball is slowly losing popularity everywhere globally because of an aging fanbase, competition of other sports, and too long seasons and game lengths. However, the popularity loss is extremely slow in the United States and noticeable globally.

Therefore, I wouldn’t worry too much about baseball going anywhere anytime soon, at least from the United States, where it continues to be one of the biggest sports there. Still, it’s concerning, though, because it’s still happening.

Take a look at a google trends graph for searches to the word ”baseball”. The graph is from 2004 to 2022, and you can see a decrease in searches in the google search engine. This tells us that the popularity and interest in baseball are indeed decreasing.

However, when you look at the picture below, you can barely see any decrease during these 18 years, only for searches done in the United States. Therefore, you shouldn’t worry about the extinction of baseball, as it’s highly unlikely ever to happen.

Where Is Baseball Most Popular?

When we compare baseball to other countries by popularity, it’s clear that it isn’t so widely spread, such as soccer or basketball. Still, it has spread to other countries than the states, so where is baseball the most popular?

Below you can see the top five countries that search baseball in Google.

Country	Regional Popularity
United States	100
Puerto Rico	43
Canada	40
Dominican Republic	27
Taiwan	13

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that baseball is by far the most popular in the United States, the land where it is from. However, I’m personally surprised that Japan isn’t one of the most searching countries for baseball, as the sport is quite popular there.

Canada is close to the United States, so it isn’t a surprise that it’s third on the list, yet Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Taiwan wouldn’t be my first guesses if I hadn’t known this.

What do you think? Did you guess the top 5 basebaölö countries by popularity?

What Sport Is the Most Boring?

Even if you consider baseball boring, we can all probably agree that it isn’t the single most boring sport in the world. There are over 8000 sports globally, so surely some other sports are more boring to the general public than baseball?

Generally, golf is considered the most boring sport globally; however, there are many more boring sports for the spectators. Curling, chess, and marathon running are more boring than golf to watch because of the lack of events, long waiting times, and similar recurring activities.

Golf can be a boring sport to watch, but it isn’t necessarily so, at least as boring as curling, chess, and marathon running. However, it’s a boring sport to watch because there is no competition against each other at the moment, at least in a similar way to many other sports.

If I had to pick one sport that is the most boring of all, it would be a marathon or ultra-marathon running. That’s because there can’t be close calls such as in curling, or intelligent plays such as in chess, even though they are boring to watch as well.

Marathon running is a long spectacle without anything happening except running. That is extremely boring and thus, wins the title of the world’s most boring sport.