The Best VPNs to Beat MLB.TV Blackouts

Unblocking geo-restricted MLB.TV games on PC and Mac is easy. Just connect to a VPN server location outside the blackout area, open MLB.TV, and start streaming.

I’ve laid out more detailed instructions in the steps below.

On Android devices, the MLB.TV app checks your location by looking up your device’s GPS coordinates. Unlike the iOS app, you can’t stop the app from accessing your phone or tablet’s location services.

Normally, that would mean changing your IP address location with a typical VPN only works if you run it alongside a GPS spoofing app.

Using Surfshark’s built-in ‘Override GPS location’ function, though, you can fake your GPS location with a single (VPN) app.

The process isn’t quite as simple as on PC or Mac, but it’s still smoother than running a VPN alongside a standalone Fake GPS app.

*Applies to Samsung only. You don’t need to tap ‘Build Number’ seven times with other brands.

Alternatively, watch the video below of me using Surfshark with MLB.TV on my Android smartphone:

MLB.TV’s iOS and iPadOS app also requests your GPS location. Fortunately, there’s a way to stop location services on the app and bypass these restrictions.

Streaming geo-restricted baseball games on MLB.TV is easy on Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV, as long as your VPN has a native app for your device.

Roku devices don’t support VPN apps, and they don’t let you configure DNS settings either, so they aren’t compatible with Smart DNS proxies.

MLB.TV also removed AirPlay compatibility from its iOS app.

The best way to use a VPN with Roku is to set up ExpressVPN directly on its Aircove router.

Any device connected to it is then automatically routed through the VPN, with no further configuration needed. Aircove costs extra, though.

How to set up ExpressVPN on an Aircove Router

1. Connect your Aircove router to your modem using an Ethernet cable and power it on.
2. Connect your PC or phone to the Aircove’s Wi-Fi network.
3. Open a browser and go to www.expressvpnrouter.com to access the router’s dashboard.
4. Sign in with your ExpressVPN credentials and activate the router on your account.
5. Select a VPN server location from the dashboard. To bypass local blackouts, choose a US city outside your blackout area. To bypass national blackouts, choose a server outside the US and Canada.
6. Connect your Roku to the Aircove’s Wi-Fi network from: Settings > Network.
7. Open the MLB.TV app. All traffic from your Roku now routes through the VPN automatically.

If you don’t have an Aircove router, you can instead share your VPN connection via a Windows PC Mobile Hotspot as a free alternative. It’s a more complicated process, though.

• Test Conducted: I connected to a VPN’s servers outside the blackout area and tried to stream a live out-of-market game on MLB.TV. I repeated this using several servers in the US, the UK, and Japan.
• Why It Matters: If a VPN is blocked by MLB.TV, it’s simply useless.
• Optimal Result: Consistent access to MLB.TV on most US and international servers, and across a wide selection of devices.

• Test Conducted: Using each VPN’s recommended protocol, I measured the download speed loss while connected to its servers around the world.
• Why It Matters: Fast, stable internet speeds are essential to stream at the maximum resolution available, without interruptions or blurriness.
• Optimal Result: A download speed reduction of less than 10% connecting to nearby locations, and less than 20% to countries further afield.

• Test Conducted: I tested each VPN’s US and international servers on every app, checking for IP location accuracy and the number of locations actually available.
• Why It Matters: A large network of servers across many locations reduces the chances of server congestion and potential IP blocks.
• Optimal Result: Hundreds of reliable servers and diverse IP addresses in the US and around the world, especially in the UK and Japan.

• Test Conducted: I used every app a VPN service offers to assess each one’s usability and access to MLB.TV. I also looked for extra features like a Smart DNS proxy and integrated GPS spoofing, as well as router compatibility.
• Why It Matters: The MLB app is available on a wide range of devices, from smartphones to game consoles, so it’s important that a VPN can bypass blackout restrictions on as many of them as possible.
• Optimal Result: User-friendly apps for desktop, mobile, and streaming devices like Fire TV Stick and Apple TV. Extra points go to smooth router compatibility, built-in GPS spoofing for Android, and a Smart DNS proxy.

NordVPN is one of the most popular VPNs on the market, and it’s generally a great VPN for streaming, too.

With MLB.TV, though, its performance disappointed me. Not all servers worked in my tests, and the only genuinely reliable ones in the US were New York, New Jersey, LA, and Chicago.

I was shown an error message when accessing MLB.TV using many of NordVPN’s servers.

NordVPN also struggled more than other VPNs to stream MLB.TV on Fire TV and Android TV.

NordVPN is still a good option, but ExpressVPN is a much better service to stream MLB.TV across a wider range of devices.

Proton VPN’s streaming performance keep improving, and in my latest round of tests the VPN service unblocked MLB.TV on several servers.

That said, I had to cycle through several VPN locations before landing on one that worked, nowhere near the smooth user experience I had with ExpressVPN.

Additionally, Proton VPN’s speeds still have some catching up to do. On short distances, my internet speed slowed by 12%, and on longer routes by 16%.

Proton VPN’s free service didn’t even make it past my first checkpoint: each one of its free server locations was in fact detected by MLB.TV.

PIA is a very good VPN overall, with dedicated streaming servers, best-in-class encryption, and excellent speeds.

It failed in all of my MLB.TV tests, though. Most of the time I couldn’t even log into the MLB website, and when I connected to a PIA server while already logged in, the screen went black and I couldn’t access any games.

PIA failed to access MLB.TV on all of its servers.

CyberGhost is usually a good option for bypassing streaming geo-restrictions. Its dedicated streaming servers work with many popular services, and its free browser extensions even stream US Netflix.

CyberGhost doesn’t provide a streaming server for MLB.TV, though. I had to fall back on its standard US and international servers, none of which worked with MLB.TV. In short, CyberGhost is a poor choice for MLB.TV.