Thanks to some much-needed rule changes, Major League Baseball has achieved some key attendance milestones in 2023.
Last weekend through August 14, the MLB totaled more than 1.5 million fans in attendance for the ninth weekend this season.
The 2023 season has doubled the times that number was met in the last four years.
From 2018 to 2022, excluding the COVID-stricken 2020 campaign, the league only had five weekends over more than 1.5 million fans combined.
Last week, a total of 1,545,659 fans attended baseball games for an average of 34,348 fans per game. MLB attendance has risen by 9.3% since last year, a sign that the pace of play rule changes are working.
MLB Attendance Increase 9% Since 2022
MLB attendance has increased over the last year and the league hasn’t seen numbers this high since 1998, when the league expanded to 30 teams.
Last weekend saw an increase of 9.3% in attendance year-over-year, representing the largest increase since the last MLB expansion when the Arizona Diamondback and Tampa Bay Rays were added into the league.
Based on projections, league attendance is expected to reach 70.5 million, the highest it’s been since 2017.
The attendance boost could be attributed to the new pitch clock, which debuted this season. The clock has been used to help reduce the average nine-inning game to two hours and 39 minutes, which is a 30-minute decrease from last year’s three-hour and six-minute average game time.
The attendance increase is greater than the MLB projections, which forecasted a 6-8 percent jump for the entire season.
MLB Total Attendance For the Last Two Decades
Out of the total 30 baseball clubs, 23 (about 77 percent) are already seeing gains compared to last year.
The largest attendance increase is seen by the Philadelphia Phillies, who are averaging over 10,000 more fans per game than last season.
Other clubs that are receiving huge attendance increases include Cleveland Guardians, Texas Rangers, Cincinnati Reds, and Baltimore Orioles.
The top five times in average home attendance this season include:
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- New York Yankees
- St. Louis Cardinal
- San Diego Padres
- Atlanta Braves
Check out the chart below for total attendance numbers at MLB Games since 1995.
| Year | Total | % (+/-) |
| 1995 | 50,469,236 | 0.90% |
| 1996 | 60,097,381 | 19.10% |
| 1997 | 63,168,689 | 5.10% |
| 1998 | 70,372,221 | 11.40% |
| 1999 | 70,139,380 | -0.30% |
| 2000 | 72,635,095 | 3.60% |
| 2001 | 72,267,544 | -0.50% |
| 2002 | 67,859,176 | -6.10% |
| 2003 | 67,568,397 | -0.40% |
| 2004 | 73,022,969 | 8.10% |
| 2005 | 74,702,034 | 2.30% |
| 2006 | 76,042,787 | 1.80% |
| 2007 | 79,503,175 | 4.60% |
| 2008 | 78,588,004 | -1.20% |
| 2009 | 73,367,659 | -6.60% |
| 2010 | 72,568,780 | -1.10% |
| 2011 | 73,415,359 | 1.20% |
| 2012 | 74,859,268 | 1.97% |
| 2013 | 74,859,268 | 0.00% |
| 2014 | 73,739,622 | -1.50% |
| 2015 | 73,760,020 | 0.03% |
| 2016 | 73,159,044 | -0.81% |
| 2017 | 72,670,423 | -0.67% |
| 2018 | 69,671,272 | -4.13% |
| 2019 | 68,494,752 | -1.69% |
| 2020 | 0 | -100.00% |
| 2021 | 45,304,709 | -33.86% |
| 2022 | 64,556,636 | 42.49% |
| 2023 | 70,500,000 | 9.21% |
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