MLB Attendance Grows For Fourth Straight Year

MLB attendance reached a new high in 2026, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth for the league. The total attendance of 71.75 million fans, or 29,540 per game, is a 0.5% increase from the previous year. This four-year streak of growth is the first since 2004-07. Despite the absence of some star players due to injuries, such as Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees, fans have remained engaged due to new features like the pitch clock and automatic ball-strike system.

The Los Angeles Dodgers led the way, achieving a new franchise record of 4.03 million fans in 2026. They hosted 40 crowds of over 50,000 and had 14 sellouts at their largest ballpark. The Oakland Athletics, playing in a minor league stadium in Sacramento, had the lowest attendance at 799,240. The Tampa Bay Rays saw the most significant increase after returning to Tropicana Field, nearly doubling their attendance to 1.4 million.

The Tampa Bay Rays were the team with the biggest jump in attendance, hitting 1.4 million fans after returning to Tropicana Field. The New York Mets had the largest decline in attendance, dropping more than 472,000 fans and finishing the season with 2.71 million total attendees at Citi Field. The ongoing labor dispute between MLB owners and players, which threatens to affect the 2027 season and beyond, could pose a challenge to this positive attendance trend.