Attention baseball fanatics! Overall attendance in Major League Baseball (MLB) experienced an increase for the third consecutive season, an achievement not seen since the 2004-2007 period. Despite this progress, the average per game showed a slight decrease due to the decrease in doubleheaders caused by weather-related rescheduling.
The regular season, which concluded on Sunday, attracted 71.41 million fans in 2,423 games, with an average of 29,471 per game. This total represents an increase of 0.1% compared to the 71.35 million of the previous season, distributed over 2,413 games.The average attendance this year, 29,471, reflects a 0.3% decrease compared to the 29,568 of the previous year.
The move of the Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays to minor league stadiums negatively impacted attendance.
The Athletics, playing at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, recorded the lowest attendance in the league with 768,464 fans in 81 games, averaging 9,487 per game. This figure is lower than the 922,286 of the previous year, with an average of 11,529 at the Oakland Coliseum.
The Athletics plan to play most of their games in Sacramento through 2027, while a new stadium is built in Las Vegas. They have a six-game series scheduled at Triple-A Las Vegas Ballpark next June.
Tampa Bay played its home games this season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training field of the New York Yankees, due to the damage caused by Hurricane Milton last October at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The Rays drew 786,750 fans, averaging 9,713, and sold out 61 games. The previous year, they recorded 1,337,739 at the Trop.
Six teams surpassed 3 million viewers, an increase from the five of the previous year, but less than the eight of 2023.
The current World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, reached 4 million for the first time, with 4,012,470 fans and an average of 49,537, surpassing the 3,941,251 of the previous year.
The New York Mets experienced the biggest increase thanks to the arrival of Juan Soto, increasing by 855,271 for a total of 3,184,570, their highest figure since the inauguration of Citi Field in 2009.
Detroit, after qualifying for the playoffs the previous year for the first time since 2014, increased its attendance by 555,147, reaching 2,413,442, its highest number at Comerica Park since 2016.
On the other hand, St. Louis suffered a decrease of 628,108, with a total of 2,250,007. The Cardinals have not qualified for the playoffs since 2022, when they attracted 3,320,551 fans.
Baltimore, which did not compete for a playoff spot this year, drew 1,803,655 fans to Camden Yards, a decrease of 477,474.
