Even as the dog days of summer approach, baseball fans are coming to the ballpark in droves, which is good news for MLB.
Over the weekend, baseball drew its largest crowds in nearly a decade. According to MLB, 587,872 fans attended games on Saturday for an average of 38,858 per game, the highest since Aug. 10, 2013.
Among the 15 games played, 11 surpassed 35,000 fans, while nine eclipsed the 40,000 mark. Meanwhile, places not known for their large crowds packed their respective houses. The Baltimore Orioles sold out Camden Yards for the second time in 2023, and 45,085 fans came out to see both the Oakland Athletics and Colorado Rockies play at home. Not to be outdone, the Arizona Diamondbacks had their largest attendance since the 2023 opener, while the Miami Marlins drew their biggest crowd since Opening Day five years ago.
Saturday isn’t an anomaly but a trend that’s revealed itself throughout the year. Earlier this month, MLB drew an average single-day attendance of 32,814, the highest for a non-holiday since 2015. However, this didn’t happen on a Friday, Saturday, or even a Sunday, but instead on a random Tuesday (July 25).
With August only days away, more than half the league has an average attendance above 30,000, while four teams, the San Diego Padres (40,629), St. Louis Cardinals (41,371), New York Yankees (41,449) and Los Angeles Dodgers (48,195), average over 40,000 fans a game.
There seems to be a boom in baseball’s popularity, and the overall numbers show it. Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, MLB attendance is up nine percent this season. Furthermore, at the current rate, baseball is nearing the most significant spike in attendance since Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled it out in a historic home run race during the 1998 campaign.
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