MLB Sees Largest Attendance Increase In Three Decades

Baseball is proving it’s still America’s Favorite Pastime.

Major League Baseball just wrapped-up its regular season and has some big news to share: this year marked record-breaking attendance for the league, seeing the largest attendance increase in 30 years. The league said in a new report that paid attendance also reached the 70 million mark for the first time since 2017.

The 2023 MLB season ended with an attendance of 70,747,365 — an increase in 9.6% from the previous year. This increase also marked the highest percentage growth, aside from COVID-impacted seasons, since the league’s expansion to 28 Clubs back in 1993. Additionally, 17 Clubs brought-in over 2.5 million fans, matching the most in MLB history, while eight teams saw more than 3 million fans come out to the ballpark for the first time in 10 years.

TFL and ATBS for ticketing professionals

Aside from in-person attendance, MLB.TV also broke records; 12.7 billion minutes were watched on the platform, surpassing last year’s record and becoming the most streamed season in its 21-year history. Nine of MLB.TV’s most-watched days were recorded this season.

The record-breaking attendance likely has to do with the league’s newly-implemented rules, including the pitch clock — implementing a 30-second timer between batters, 15-second timer between pitches with empty bases, and a 20-second timer with runners on base. Since games were shortened, MLB.TV had its most successful season.

Even on the field, the new rules provided a more positive experience this season; the average length of a game was the shortest it has been in 38 years and stolen base successes were up this season, recording the most stolen bases since 1987. Several players also achieved great feats; Ronald Acuna Jr. became the first player in baseball history with a 40-70 season, Corbin Carroll became the first rookie to register a 25-50 season, and Trea Turner’s 100% success rate is the highest since 1951 among all MLB players who attempted at least 30 stolen bases this season.

Earlier this year, the league said that its attempt to bring-in younger fans is working, as more kids are watching highlight breakdowns online, and there’s been a havy presence on the video game “MLB: The Show.” The league also zoned-in on how the younger group consumes the sport online. Amid MLB’s social media presence, the league saw a 50% increase in engagements this season and 6 billion views across its social media accounts.

MLB is now in its post season with 12 teams vying for the World Series title.