MLB Shares Stat Showing Just How Drastically New Rules Have Shortened Games

Since introducing the pitch clock and banning the shift, MLB has seen its number of three-and-a-half-hour regular season games go from 391 in 2021 to seven in 2024.

Sep 22, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; A fan holds up an OMG sign during the ninth inning between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets at Citi Field. | Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

Baseball has gone through some transformative changes over the past few years, and the results of said changes are in.

Automatic runners were introduced in extra innings in 2020, as was the three-batter minimum for pitchers. The next wave of massive rule changes came in 2023, when the league added a pitch clock, limited pickoff attempts, increased the size of bases and placed heavy restrictions on defensive shifts, all after the universal designated hitter arrived in 2022.

As expected, each of those rule changes have played a part in changing the pace of play in the big leagues.

According to MLB's public relations team, there were 391 nine-inning games that lasted at least 3 hours and 30 minutes in 2021, then 232 in 2022.

There were nine such games in 2023. That number has dropped again in 2024, sitting at seven through Sept. 26.

Regular Season Nine-Inning @MLB Games of Three Hours and Thirty Minutes or Longer:

* 2021: 391
* 2022: 232
* 2023: 9
* 2024: 7 (through 9/26)

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) September 27, 2024

The lack of excessively long games has, naturally, gone hand-in-hand with an increase in shorter contests. Starting last season, teams started setting records with how fast they were cruising through games, and that trend continued in 2024.

Some fans may relish in the longer games, enjoying every last timeout, mound visit and pitching change – they had been part of the game for over a century, after all. But the average MLB game time had started climbing to such prohibitive heights in the 2010s and into the 2020s, likely standing as a barrier of entry for potential new fans.

Now, attendance numbers are up yet again, and the game seems to be in a healthy place moving forward.

And for fans planning on attending nighttime playoff games in the Midwest or Northeast, shorter games will be merciful the deeper into October their teams go.

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