On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 63% from critics based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The site's critical consensus read, "It may be shamelessly derivative and overly nostalgic, but "The Sandlot" is nevertheless a genuinely sweet and funny coming-of-age adventure." On Metacritic, the film had a score of 55 based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.