The 2026 regular season of Major League Baseball is in the books. Monday is an off day before the Wild Card series starts on Tuesday. With the regular season over, the league can tout that it has now seen four straight seasons of attendance growth.
Thank the Tampa Bay Rays.
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According to the league, total attendance for the 2026 regular season was 71,752,722 across 2,425 dates for an average of 29,589. That ranks as the highest since 2017, when the league drew 72,670,423.
The last time MLB saw four consecutive years of attendance increase was 2004-07.
The attendance increase over 2025 was ever so slight. Last year saw 71,409,421 (2,423 dates and a 29,471 average), or a 2026 increase of 343,301 total, or +0.48%.
The key reason MLB saw attendance increase in 2026 was due to the Tampa Bay Rays, and their return to playing games in Tropicana Field. Last season, they played George M. Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees as repairs were made to the roof of The Trop in the wake of Hurricane Milton in 2024. According to Baseball-Reference, the Rays drew 628,225 more fans this year than in 2025 by simply returning to Tropicana Field.
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Other clubs that saw attendance increases included the Chicago White Sox (up 540,687), Toronto Blue Jays (up 488,943), and Seattle Mariners (up 345,745). For Seattle, their 2,883,798 total was the largest since 2004. The Blue Jays saw 61 sellouts this season and surpassed 3 million in attendance for the first time since 2023.
But for all the attendance increases, there were clubs that had a drag on overall attendance.
There were 13 clubs with increases compared to 17 decliners. The largest drop off from 2025 was led by the New York Mets (-472,450 or -5,833 per game), followed by the Houston Astros (-255,759 or -3,158 per game) and Kansas City Royals (-221,703 or -2,737 per game).
One club, the Los Angeles Dodgers, saw total attendance top 4 million (4,034,219) while the Padres, Blue Jays, Yankees, and Phillies all topped 3 million. The A’s, currently playing in Sutter Health Park, home to the minor league Sacramento River Cats, were the only club to see attendance below 1 million (799,240 total).
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
