Blaseball

About

Blaseball is an absurdist baseball-simulation browser game developed by The Game Band which grew popular in the summer of 2020. Presented through text, Blaseball offers players the chance to bet on games using in-game currency, though games are subject to myriad disasters, such as an entire team getting incinerated by rogue umpires. Each "season" lasts a week and the post-season happens on Saturdays.

History

Blaseball is the idea of The Game Band creative director Sam Rosenthal,^[1] who came up with the idea during coronavirus-related quarantine as a background game for people working from home. The game released on July 20th, 2020.

The game is played by betting on matches using in-game currency, and those who win can allow additional, bizarre rules to become part of the game. For example, one season, players voted so that the four worst teams in the league could get a fourth strike instead of the traditional three.

Reception

Blaseball quickly grew popular, to the point where developers had to put the game on hiatus for two weeks to meet the challenges of a rapidly growing player base.^[1] This was thanks in part to positive articles written by major publications, including Vice^[2] and Polygon.^[3] Vice wrote:

People who like sports love to pretend that their investment can affect the outcomes of games. In Blaseball, it can and will. Blaseball is more about the meta-game that every sports fan plays outside of the actual games; a game of hypotheticals, a mental rearranging of players and circumstances.

Polygon praised the interactive experience the game has provided for fans, writing:

Making a number get big is fun, but that’s not why Blaseball took over the internet. The meat of the Blaseball experience exists outside the game, in the ever-expanding fan lore of the sport of Blaseball (referred to in-game as a “splort”).

Online Presence

Blaseball quickly developed a significant online fandom, with fans contributing lore and fan art to fill in the gaps of the world. Fans created "official" Twitter accounts for all the teams in the league,^[3] which they use to needle other teams and spark rivalries. The only Official Blaseball account is that of its "commissioner," which has gained over 13,000 followers.^[6]

A fan wiki^[4] documents the league and the various events of each season, including the record number of incinerations teams have faced from rogue umpires. The day the game was released, a subreddit was created,^[5] gaining over 2,300 members in less than two months. There, fans share artwork and comics inspired by the game (examples shown below).

Search Interest

External References