In case there was still any question, baseball is back – and then some.
MLB revealed the league-wide attendance numbers from this past weekend, which featured rivalry showdowns between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at Fenway Park and the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Other high-profile series – like the Baltimore Orioles hosting the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Diego Padres visiting the New York Mets – were also big draws, getting fans to visit ballparks across the country.
In total, 1,688,731 fans attended the 45 MLB games between June 14 and June 16. That was good for an average of 37,527 fans per game.
Both the total and average figures were the highest of any weekend since Aug. 22 to Aug. 24, 2008.
Sunday alone accounted for 612,066 fans, which was the highest Sunday total Sept. 28, 2008. Games on that day 16 years ago drew just 603 more fans.
As for Saturday, it featured the highest average attendance on a Saturday since 2013 and the highest average attendance on a pre-July Saturday since 2008.
Back in May, MLB announced additional attendance numbers that were the best of their kind since 2014. The league also saw attendance spikes in 2023, which were largely credited to rule changes such as the pitch clock and banning the shift.
Altogether, the number of fans still willing to shell out for MLB games post-COVID has been promising, which cannot be said for every sport at every level over the past few years. The latest figures demonstrate just how much of a hold baseball still has on the American public, with superteams and superstars alike bringing fans out in droves.
