Apparently You Bought MLB At Bat 2010

The iPad version.

Late last week Apple announced the top iPhone/iPad apps of 2010. In a heartwarming change of fortune for innocently exuberant technophile Bud Selig (not really), “MLB At Bat 2010” was the top grossing iPhone/iPod Touch app overall, as well as the top grossing sports-related iPad app. General info on the app awards can be found at Slashgear and in the iTunes Store.

One factor in MLB At Bat 2010 being the highest grossing app of 2010 was probably that, at $15, it was one of the most expensive apps of 2010. But it’s still pretty impressive to beat out games and other general-interest apps that retail for $0.99. Think about it — less than 15x as many people bought “Angry Birds” for $1 this year as bought MLB At Bat for $15. That says something about the simple appetite for baseball, at least within the iPhone/iPad demographic.

The popularity of this app probably also says something about the broad appeal of a new, more active way of “watching” sports. MLB has leveraged their control over the premium content involved (game video) to create something pretty cutting-edge in the At Bat app: it’s TV (if you have the separate MLB.tv subscription), combined with controllable, web-like data displays, combined with a browsable newspaper. If you can’t really imagine what that’s all like, Fangraphs creator David Appelman posted a description of the iPad version back in April.

Since this is an app you have to purchase annually (brilliant!), MLB Advanced Media will be looking forward to another pile of money in 2011, especially with holiday iPad sales and the putative Verizon iPhone expanding the iOS user base. Here’s hoping they reinvest some of that cash in the app experience. Like, for starters, including both the iPhone and iPad versions for my $15?