MLB Home Run Derby 2023 Reviews

I first started playing this game a few months ago and loved it. I enjoyed the perks of winning and increasing my presence. That faded quickly. Aside from the pitches getting harder as your ab goes on, which I am fine with…it’s the other crap that makes this an insufferable app. First, there have been many times I would have 5 or 6 hr lead only to see that my opponent has tied..and sometimes past me both in number of homers and distance. Second, MLBHomeRunDerby2023 will let your opponent somehow see more pitches despite the same elapsed time. I tested this out and purposely would swing and miss at pitches in order to generate the next possible quickest pitch…I literally went down two home runs while I had only received one pitch. My advice to anyone playing. This game is rigged…you aren’t playing “head to head” against another live person..think about it, really how many people are actually playing the exact moment you are that would allow head to head play. Sad because MLBHomeRunDerby2023 has potential. My advice to the developers of this..you make your money from ads…just don’t make it obvious that this game is soooo rigged. Then again, it’s an mlb app and as a lifelong baseball fan it doesn’t surprise me that just like everything else, mlb screw up something that could benefit the game.

I love baseball so I generally enjoy this game, but there are two issues in particular that frustrates me. One is that there are far too many dead spots in different stadiums where home runs just aren’t counted for some reason, whether is be certain light towers, signage, or roofs of domed stadiums. This just absolutely shouldn’t be, period. More than a couple times this has cost me games in multiplayer mode. The other issue is when there is no video available to watch when I’m trying to speed up the time it takes to unlock a pack of cards or boost that pack once it’s unlocked. This issue comes and goes occasionally but always seems to conveniently appear at a time like now, during the playoffs, when unlocking cards of players on playoff teams becomes time sensitive. Of course, this could be a coincidence but it happens a little too frequently or that to be the case. Every time there is a new update to MLBHomeRunDerby2023 , I hope it will address these issues. It’s not like it hasn’t been brought up in previous reviews. But that hasn’t been the case yet. At least the most recent update brought us wrist bands and arm sleeves. You know, the real important stuff.

I’ve played about 30 hours of this game which shows I enjoy it. However I’m leaving this review to rant about the issues that will soon have me quitting. Very frustrating issue in some fields where homeruns hit signs or billboards (example being progressive field) and for some reason don’t count as homeruns resulting in frequent multiplayer losses.. Offline derby’s are far too easy making them quickly become boring. Online tournament has also not been loading for hours at a time recently so I can’t participate. My biggest issue is that I’m currently using a player that has a total of 125 power and 108 contact with equipment but can literally NEVER outdistance an opponent in multiplayer. Whether they’re using a rare player epic player or legendary. In fact my max homerun distance with said character is around 720ft and that is only when I can pull the pitch down the left field foul line making it descend further when sailing out of the park.. Hard to believe someone using a rare or epic player should be able to consistently hit deeper homers than a legendary player with 125 power.

The reason this game is great is simple: IT’S FUN! It’s a blast to hit monster homeruns and this game delivers. The hitting interface is so great, I wish they’d bring it the the R.B.I Baseball app as well. My biggest gripe is that the game is positively infested with ads that you absolutely must watch to earn more of the virtual currency required to “buy” equipment upgrades that would allow you to really compete. Wish there was another way to make that happen without all the ads. Truth is, I’m not even watching them. I play the ad to double my rewards, skip a challenge, etc. but then I set my iPad aside for a few minutes to do something else when it plays, then come back to collect my rewards when the ad is done playing. Advertisers aren’t getting much value from that, and more importantly, it makes for a poor gaming experience. Update: there a new bug that freezes the game after a multi-player game. You must force quit MLBHomeRunDerby2023 . Then the game inexplicable selects Bryce Harper to replace any player you had previously equipped as your player, when the game restarts. Why is he coded as the default?? Super weird.

This game is blatantly rigged. You opponent in multiplayer will almost always beat you. You can have a good stretch going, never miss a single pitch, 30 home runs in a row! And somehow, your opponent will get 32. Also, you can hit the ball in the exact same spot several times in a row and get all home runs, then hit the same spot again, and it falls just short. The game is set up to keep you from winning. I’m honestly convinced that multiplayer is just you against bots! And the matchmaking is horrible if it is people. How do I, as a B- player with low level ball players, get matched with an A+ player with Legendary guys that have insane stats? It’s rigged! That’s how. And also, if you aren’t using boosts, it’s almost impossible to hit the ball. This entire game is set up so that you constantly pump money into it just to try and win. And don’t even get me started on the ridiculous amount of time and effort it takes to obtain uniforms. Uniforms that you can’t even use in multiplayer. I have been playing for over 2 years and have yet to unlock more than one uniform. My advice, just find a different baseball game.

It seems that whoever developed this game comes around occasionally to put a few new hitter on and offer some new expensive player package, but has to be prodded into fixing any bugs in the game. And there are so, so many. Enough that it makes gameplay considerably less enjoyable.

The newest one has to do with the uniforms, which remain absurdly difficult to obtain in the first place. But once you do, it’d be swell if you could actually use them in multiplayer—but now, they just revert to the default uniform, no matter which you choose. Then—this part is just funny—if you immediately hit the button to play again, sometimes your hitter will take on a new uniform of a team he isn’t on!

As humorous as it is to see Bryce Harper the Padre or Aaron Judge the Met, the real issues have to do with scoring. Every park, still, has spots where a ball will hit over the wall in fair territory and it’ll either be slow to count—or not count at all. You can occasionally win a multiplayer game and your player rating will drop, not your opponent’s.

This game is fun, but there are some issues that prevent replay value.

-Uniforms cost wayyyyy too much. I’ve been playing this game for a while and never gotten close to unlocking a uniform and frankly don’t really care about them. There are just too many of them that cost too much, and opening a pack of cards just to get a bunch of uniforms that you aren’t gonna get close to unlocking is annoying.

- Equipment is sooo hard to unlock. Again, I’ve been playing the game a while now, and I’ve unlocked maybe a single bat. Instead of equipment cards, I just get a bunch of uniform cards!!

- it should be possible to level up a player by playing with them a bunch instead of just waiting to get more of their cards. I think unlocking a legendary player would be cool, but unless you happen to get a bunch more of their cards (unlikely) they will always have mediocre stats. Players should level up from you playing well with them.

- having even a little control over which players/equipment you unlock would go a long way. It’s too random now. I could get two gold packs of cards and come away empty handed, and the odds of getting enough cards of one of the players I really want seem almost impossible, which makes me want to stop playing.

Fun game overall though! I kinda like the system of watching ads optionally to get more cards/coins.

This could be a great game if there weren't so many bugs causing it to crash all the time. There's no excuse for not fixing them at this point -- some of the bugs have existed for 6+ months.
Prior to the recent update, the game would crash whenever a card pack was opened and a new uniform card was revealed. That bug was NEVER fixed so the game was basically unplayable since it forces you to open the same card pack after it restarts. Once the same uniform card is revealed ... another crash - and another - and another...
NOW - the most recent update (June 2020) has completely broken the game on my iPhone 6. After it loads the main "home" screen, the game crashes immediately. I've restarted my device, uninstalled and reinstalled the game - nothing has resolved the issue.
It's time to GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER, MLB Advanced Media! I was hoping the recent update would resolve many of the old issues that have existed for far too long. Instead, it's yet another disappointing update that managed to make a bad situation even worse.

The game is rigged. Especially In multiplayer mode. It seems like you’re predetermined to lose if it wants you to lose because of all the glitches especially when balls that are absolute HRs to dead center field or any field aren’t counted. I’ve lost count how many times that has been the difference between winning or losing. It can get frustrating. I doubt most of those opponents are computer generated and not even real players. On top of that it’ll throw impossible pitches that there’s no way you can hit a HR off of no matter where you place the bat and it always seems to happen when you’re winning. It’s funny how your opponent magically jumps 2-3 HRs in one shot or starts with 1-2 HRs before you can get a swing in. That’s just some issues. Why are you giving cards towards items you’re already maxed out on especially the uniforms?? It’s a waste of cards and packs. It’s like you didn’t even earn anything. The game has potential to be good but needs a lot of work. I guess you can’t expect too much from amateur game developers 🤷🏽‍♂️lol

I like this game but have some issues. First issue is playing multiplayer in the domes. Pretty frustrating how many hits don’t count in the domes with Toronto being the worst! It also doesn’t help how the game either has the balls flying low or other times popping straight up. So if it’s popping up and your in a dome just reset the game cause you’re probably playing someone 10 levels above you and half your homers don’t count. Fun stuff.. Arcade mode is kind of pointless the pitcher is further away so you can’t really practice your timing and those targets are ridiculously hard to hit considering there isn’t really anyway to aim. Derby mode is cool if you’re trying to get bucks and it’s pretty easy. One other thing why do the multiplayer packs have a stupid timer on them? Just let me open them! Some of them have a 20 hour timer on them so unless you want to spend bucks or watch horrible ads you just have to wait?

This Game has the potential to be one of my favorite games. I’ve played for hours. I play nightly. And the more I play this more I realize the major flaw. The rewards system makes no sense. The card collecting is pointless. The guy you have is ranked better than any guy you hope to unlock. I got Pete Alonso early and there’s no way to improve on him. Even the equipment is dumb. The better looking equipment isn’t ranked very well. And unlocking anything takes forever and even when you do you’ll probably be taking a step backwards if you equip. Also $5 to unlock stadiums has to be the biggest joke I ever seen. Also the targets in arcade are impossible to hit. You have to hit perfectly which is dumb. The ball goes right above or below. Sometimes which makes that mode frustrating and useless. This is all unfortunate because the gameplay is fantastic.

It is really fun. There are some glitches with the distance of the home runs and sometimes the pitches are frustrating but I understand that they want it to be challenging. Also they should add more things to do with your coins like maybe being able to spend them on gear cards not just players I have so many and I’m waiting for something to use them on also add another source besides daily challenges and derby’s and the mlb buck balls to get mlb bucks because after a while of grinding on derby it gets boring. And 1 more thing the packs you get from series points you should be able to tap them and see what you could get from them like all the other packs other than that this game is vary fun and you should play it.

While trying to enjoy a game of HRD. Your software is CORRUPTED!!! Every time I try to play one on one competition my opponent’s score jumps by 2’s. Then tonight his score went from 4 to 15 in the same time I went from 4 to 10. Not missing a single pitch for a home rub. Same competitors in the same time frame.
My WiFi is totally up to date and top speed. It’s not on my end it’s your SOFTWARE!!!
I lose every time I play and lose coins and position that took me time to acquire.
I never loose a single homer in derby and when I play competition it makes me want to scream. FIX YOUR SOFTWARE! Put some money back into your product for a change.
NEVER ANY UPDATES! WHY???

It’s a great game overall and I personally love it. The issue I have with this game though is that when I hit foul balls in multiplayer, the camera looks at the for the longest time and allows the other player to hit more Home runs and get on top especially when it’s a close game. I suggest that foul balls shouldn’t even be looked upon because their just foul balls, they don’t benefit in anything. The other issue that I have is that I believe it’s just dumb for pitchers to throw curve balls at you whilst playing in a home run derby? I don’t know, in my opinion I believe that should be taken off. And lastly are the home runs. For example, Tropicana Field, sometimes balls hit the cat walks or “frames” on the roof and in real life, if you hit the outer frame, it’s a home run. But in this game it doesn’t. That needs to be fixed.

I’m going to start writing a bad review and giving this game 1 star EVERYDAY!!! Unless the MANY problems this game has gets fixed. I’m losing in multiplayer just because the game is messing up. Not counting my home runs and calling fair balls foul. This game really gave me 900ft. for a hit I blasted to center field out the park and NO home run! How does a ball go that far and not be a home run? This is ridiculous!!! And that’s just one problem out of the many. I really do like this game but it just seems to get WORSE. You guys focus on updating the wrong things instead of correcting this terrible game play. And jus because I been playing the game for so long I’m trying to give it chances but this is just getting bad. It’s extremely frustrating. I will go out of my way to destroy this game if I have to but how bout y’all jus fix it!?!?! How bout that? Is it really that hard? Please fix these problems or I’m going on a warpath. I promise you that!

The gameplay is pretty fun. It’s a game where you mindlessly smack a few home runs. I have no interest in multiplayer games, and there’s no challenge in playing the derby. I thought it would get harder as you progressed but it doesn’t. It’s just a way to grind and get mlbucks. Wish that could be more of a challenge. I also don’t understand why the stadiums have to be purchased with real money. There’s no way to unlock them with cards or ads or anything, unless I’m missing something. Paying $5 / stadium is crazy no matter how much you want to get a change in scenery. There are also challenges focused around specific stadiums so unless you shell out real cash, you can’t even complete them. Seems kind of dumb.

This game looks fun and easy but it is not. Whenever you try to guess where the ball is going to be and you tap the screen it goes where you don’t want it. This is especially annoying when you guess it right and then it moved you to some completely other place! Another reason is the batter moves so slow like even when you time it right and it says great timing it’s not very close to the ball at all. My second to last reason is that it’s really very hard to hit a homerun the only thing you every really hit is foul balls or you hit grounders which are only from like 10-13 coins if YOU’RE LUCKY if not you only get maybe 4-7 coins. My final reason is it is so glitchy personally I’m not sure how to explain that’s how glitchy it is. If you have gotten this part thank you and I appreciate you reading my feedback.

** Update from below. Thank you to the developers for fixing the game. I’m sure I’m not the only player who could not use the multiplayer function. It took 30-48 hours to get fixed. I’ve seen worse for sure. My rating goes from a 1 Star to 4 Star because the game can still be a little glitchy. However, it’s definitely in my top 4 games right now.
Thank you again.

Right now the Multiplayer is not working at all! When multiple player works Derby is still a little glitchy. Otherwise, this game is super fun! It’s a shame the developers don’t know what they are doing or no one is updating it. Somewhere the makers are not listening to the customers. This review would change to 4 Stars if they fix the Multiplayer.

Let me preface my review by saying I’ve been playing this game for 7 years, so I know what I’m talking about.

Don’t waste time with the tournament. You aren’t competing against real players. The developers have tried to make it appear as if you are playing against other players, but nearly all the opponents are bots. DON’T SPEND ANY MONEY on boosts. They don’t do anything. The only item even worth buying is a ballpark you want to play in. Other than that, don’t spend a cent.

In tournament mode your opponent will win the vast majority of the time no matter how good you are. I have had countless rounds where I’ve hit home runs EVERY pitch and still lost by 5 homers. The bots will hit homers at a much faster pace than is even possible for real players. The pitches don’t come fast enough for you to hit 30+ homers a round, but opponents will do it all the time. Be warned. This is one of the most blatantly rigged games ever made. Just play arcade. It’s casual and fun and you can still get the satisfaction of hitting dingers.

You’ll see exactly what I am referring to within just a few rounds. It’s frustrating, so I don’t even bother with tournament mode anymore. It is comically rigged to make you spend money on upgrades. Don’t do it. Just grind away at arcade and don’t give these developers a cent.

I like it it’s is fun but... whenever I hit the ball it always tracks the ball even if it is foul territory and it always watches the ball roll too and that is a waste of time to hit and also I spent 600 coins on the fair boost and I still hit foul territory and that is just a waste of coins I want my 600 coins back because it is a waste for to buy a boost that doesn’t even work and also the more power boost also doesn’t even work because without it I hit 9 to 10 home runs with it I hit 0 so I also want 1000 coins back or what how many it cost for I don’t know how much it is for that one please fix all those changes and it would be the best game for the game 5 stars but with those problems it’s a 2 to 2 and 1/2 stars if you fix the following of the ball after you hit it if that stops and if you fix all the boost to work it would be a 5 star game

Thank you

IT’S TRUE, your opponents hit 2 occasionally even 3 homeruns in the time your pitcher begins his wind up and ending when your homerun ball lands also your opponents will oftentimes get a extra hit in the end while your game is ended but you have to wait a extra 8 seconds while your opponent takes that extra swing before your match can officially end. Among the other bad glitch’s you’ll have is at the end of a match or even worse the tournament where time has run out and you have won but the next screen(stage of play)ending the match dose not change, it just stays on that part and the only way you can continue is to quit the match causing you to forfeit and take the loss and you lose boosts, $money$, points etc. along with losing your standing. If you have anger issues or are at least are someone who may throw something when you get mad “THIS GAME IS NOT FOR YOU” I have thrown my phone a few times in anger because I’ve lost multiple match’s I was ahead in and my opponent scored 2 to 3 homeruns in the time of me hitting 1. Find another derby game

Over time I became obsessed with the original version of this game. It is a very simple and smooth game, and trust me it is worth taking the time to figure out the timing. Once you hit a few 700 feet home runs you will clearly understand my obsession with this game, and will not be able to put it down! The recent update has only added more fun. The overall game play has remained the same which is perfect bc that is what they got right the first time and just added a really cool card packs to collect new players. This is worth the space on your phone and if you give it a chance you will be hooked like me!

*UPDATE* as of 6/27 @ 5:27pm est.
swing timing is still an issue. Restore the old version. The players look so idiotic. This game had unbelievable graphics and realism before this horrendous update. Keep your silver pack. Just give me back the game I play with my son daily.

I’m done with this game if this is the update. I play this game everyday. I’ve done real well and progressed real far. Timing is great, Contact and power are improving. Hit a 789 ft HR. Now, I’m all excited about this update thinking maybe I can finally add a user name or maybe it’ll stop allowing the cpu to beat me by 1 hr after the timer stops but no...now they have to mess up my guys swing so I gave to adjust my timing. He hits 100% now to opposite field. My power, contact, everything is horrible. I’m back to square 1. My guy, Cerpedes, looks like he has some sort of affliction. Screw this man. I give up. I’ll download something else.

Overall the game is fun to play but do not waste a single dollar from your wallet trying to get the good players and the good gear as this will still not give you an edge to win. I have epic players and legendary gear and still lose 90% of the head to head games I play. I will hit a homerun and before my ball even lands my opponent will hit 2 more. Or, I will be ahead of my opponent and the pitcher will start throwing curve balls, sinkers or anything to make you miss for like 10 pitches straight until the other guy passes you by 5 or 6 homeruns. You would think that having some of the best equipment in the game would push you some more to the winning side but nope!!!! You can hit just as many homeruns with the character you start the game with as you can with an epic or legendary character.

The game itself is very fun. The players and equipment are all cool, and the events held daily are fresh. Although, the game has many bugs that need to be fixed. There have been multiple times I have won a derby, and had to forfeit the match because the game would freeze; furthermore, it only seems to freeze when I am about to win a match. Another bug is the home runs not counting. I have had incidents where a ball goes a certain distance they will not count, and I do not mean the ball hitting the top of the dome in a indoor stadium. For example, I kept hitting the Cleveland’s Indians sign and they would not count. Overall the game is great and quality is good, but there are a few bugs that are extremely aggravating.

Using the same player as before the update I went from hitting 50ish hrs in arcade mode to struggling to hit 20. Derby mode is worse. I was mostly a pull hitting time. Now everything is hit other way so much I struggle to keep fair. If I time with earlier swing I might get a little pulled from center but with no power. Some other reviews said the update didn't mess with playing experience. ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Makes me think it was a fake review. I stopped putting money in this game a long time ago because they took stuff I bought out of the game with no compensation. 2018 version was making me think it was worth while again. Now I'm back to refusing to put money in this. Game isn't as fun anymore.

This game is amazing love playing as Cody bellinger aka #MVP #bellibomb its fun to hit deep af home runs its amazing awesome game to play in my spare time but the only problem I have is you have to pay for the stadiums I get it for th mlbucks and the coins but why the stadiums I would love to play in dodger stadium but it have to pay 3-5 dollars for one stadium I might as well just play multiplayer to try to get someone who has dodger stadium and the odds of that are not that high the stadiums should be free or make the purchasable by coins or mlbucks so that players who play the game to grind can try to get that stadiums while saving money

This game is really good. The graphics are great, and you feel like you are really in the game. But I would wish that there would be new modes and better PA announcements. Plus, lot’s of the stadiums cost a lot. And I would love if this game could make their own version of MLB THE SHOW ON MOBILE! That would really get customers on edge, and tons of people would buy it. So please make an MLB the Show for mobile, cause that’ll draw attention. Thanks!

I always thought this game would be fun and gave all credit for making this game. Well, there aware many,many,many things wrong w/ the game. 1: It is very broken: I have played for about a month and my game has restarted my entire save data TWICE. It says the “save data is corrupt and needs to be restarted”, but why? Then I will also comment on the extremely rigged derby mode. In a real derby, pitchers don’t throw curveballs when you are 1 HR away from winning the round. Plus the calculating system is off by a lot. I hit the top of the centerfield wall and it said it went 549 ft. Then I hit the middle of the scoreboard and it said it went 510 ft. Honestly, the game is kinda fun, but the problems pretty much ruin most of the game.

Don’t waste your time or money. You will be highly impressed when you first open app and start to play. It all goes downhill after that. It’s like nobody on MLBHomeRunDerby2023 dev team has ever watched a mlb home run derby before. Inconsistent pitching like the pitcher is from a rival team instead of trying to pitch so you can hit well. Some hit balls go over the fence but aren’t counted as home runs. I upgraded equipment and added a boost and hitting didn’t get any better and actually seemed to get worse. Who wants to spend coins and bucks and hit the same or worse??? Hopefully it will get fixed soon or maybe completely rewritten by developers that actually like and understand baseball. Until then it’s not worth it and I can’t recommend this game.

I played this game probably every day for almost two years and got to the end (level 100) a little while back. Other than the basic glitches, my only issue is once you Max out a player (after level 14) or equipment (after level 10), they keep giving you cards for these items. Now probably 80-90 percent of the cards I get in most packs are useless. It’s nice they try to add new players to keep you interested but stop giving cards on something when it’s Max’d out! Thanks it’s been fun but at least I can now get my life back!

This game was great and I loved it, it was one of my favorite games. But then the update comes and my eagle eye is now trash. I hit too many foul balls. The characters batting stances and their faces look terrible. Examples: Some of the batting stances look like Jeff Bagwell’s batting stance, Bryce Harper’s hair is 5 feet high and Johnny Bench is a ghost and is more white than me. And I am always one of the whitest people in my class or something. So that is saying something! Also Jackie Robinson, Rod Carew, and Ernie Banks look like the same player just with different jerseys. Also some of the players look like Caucasian Shrek. The skinny players look chubby. The hair looks like it is from the McDonald’s dumpster. Ichiro Suzuki hits more homers in a game than I hit in a derby with my legend Todd Frazier. This game is now💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩