Unfortunately, there are times when work obligations keep you from enjoying your favorite sports matches. While solutions for your schedule might be few, a useful method to keep tabs on the scores from your Mac exists.

For iPhone users, Apple has developed an impressive sports scores app that allows fans to monitor scores seamlessly while attending to other tasks. Unfortunately, no equivalent application has been released for Macs, which can be rather disappointing. Although Siri can provide scores upon request, it doesn’t offer a way to discreetly track them in the background. Fortunately, there’s a fantastic free application called MenuScores that places current scores for several major leagues right in your menu bar.

This open-source application provides real-time scores for notable sports leagues from both Europe and North America. After you install it, you’ll notice “Select a Game” in your menu bar; clicking this will reveal a list of leagues. Hover over a league to see all corresponding matches, and a simple click lets you check the current score whenever you glance at your menu bar. Users can also opt to receive notifications for when games commence and conclude.

MenuScores supports various leagues, including the NHL, NBA, NCAA basketball (men’s and women’s), NFL, MLB, F1, PGA, LPGA, UEFA Champions League, EPL, La Liga (ESP), Bundesliga (GER), Serie A (ITA), and the NLL. Since not every fan will want scores from all of these, users can easily disable any league in the settings. Notifications can also be turned off, and score refresh rates can be customized, ranging from every five seconds to every five minutes, with ESPN’s API providing the updates.

While, overall, this application serves its purpose well, there are a few areas for improvement. It would be beneficial to have more in-depth game details available with a simple click, even if that required launching a browser. Furthermore, the absence of Major League Soccer (MLS) support is noticeable. Nonetheless, it remains a valuable tool for enthusiasts of the supported leagues. During the hockey season, this app will certainly be an essential resource for many users.