Everything to Know About G.O.A.T. Difficulty in MLB The Show 25

In previous installments of MLB The Show, the game has offered players nine different difficulties to choose from, each providing a different experience depending on your skill level. These options have been, from lowest to highest, Dynamic, Beginner, Amateur, Minors, Rookie, Veteran, All-Star, Hall of Fame, and Legend. With MLB The Show 25, San Diego Studio is attempting to up the stakes a bit for players who want an even bigger challenge with the all-new G.O.A.T. difficulty.

To summarize the kind of challenges that G.O.A.T. will present, pitches will appear faster, breaks will be greater, swing timing windows will be shorter, batter PCIs will be smaller, pitcher PARs will be larger, and the inputs for Pinpoint pitching will be harder. To put it even more simply, it essentially scales every difficulty slider to the max.

With it being the hardest difficulty in the game, odds are that playing on G.O.A.T. won’t be for everyone. Even without this latest option, there were plenty who would struggle on Legend either in single-player, or when playing Diamond Dynasty (yours truly certainly fits the latter). But this difficulty isn’t meant for everyone to begin with.

As confirmed by SDS on their Feature Premiere gameplay deep dive, G.O.A.T. difficulty is expressly catered to the absolute best MLB The Show players in the world. As someone who plays more Diamond Dynasty than I’d be comfortable admitting, that skill gap between Hall of Fame and Legend is a killer. Even as a player who typically hits World Series multiple times a year, it’s never a fun process. So I can only imagine how much of a skill gap there will be between Legend and G.O.A.T., which will surely be populated by only the sweatiest of the sweaties.

Anyone who has played enough Diamond Dynasty knows that the difficulty in Ranked play is divided into four categories depending on what your level is: Veteran (0-199), All-Star (200-699), Hall of Fame (700-899), and Legend (900+).

SDS has confirmed that beginning with MLB The Show 25, G.O.A.T. difficulty will be reached when a player surpasses the 1000-rating threshold. Select esports competitions will also be held on G.O.A.T. difficulty. In previous years, difficulty scaling stopped once a player hit the Legend (900) rating. If players were to reach the 1000 rating, they’d be given some cosmetics to flex their achievement, but nothing else. With G.O.A.T. difficulty now being reached at 1000, one would think there would be more rewards for hitting that mark rather than just a gold PNG.

I would think the yearly Extreme Program will feature some G.O.A.T. challenges next year as well. And that sounds miserable. And no, I still don’t have that Ronald Acuna card.