MLB: Paid-Attendance Map for 2024 (home/regular season average tickets-sold), including change from 2023 and percent-capacity figures
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By Bill Turianski on the 8th of April 2025; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Official site…mlb.com.
-Teams, etc…Major League Baseball (en.wikipedia.org).
-Attendance figures (2024 home regular season tickets sold), baseball-reference.com/2024-misc.
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The map…
The larger the team’s average attendance, the larger their circle is on the map. The circles on the map contain each MLB teams’ 2024 home cap logo. That is, except with respect to Baltimore’s cap-logo, which is of their all-black road cap, because the Orioles wear their white-paneled cap at home, and I wanted to maintain a uniformity to all 30 of the circular-cap-logos on the map. The circles with cap-logos were then sized to reflect crowd size, utilizing a constant gradient. If you are unsure about the term “paid-attendance”, my post on MLB paid-attendance from 2015 can clear that up for you {here, 2014 MLB paid-attendance map}. The chart at the right-hand-side of the map page shows 5 things: Attendance-Rank, Average Paid-Attendance, Numerical Change in Average Paid-Attendance from Previous Season [2023], Venue Capacity, Percent-Capacity.
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Attendance was up 0.9% in 2024. In 2024, in MLB’s 3rd post-COVID season, attendance increased again, but only very slightly, by 139 per game, to 29,373 per game. Since 2022, league average attendance has risen from 26.5-K to 29.3-K (an increase of 2.8-K per game). 2024′s attendance was MLB’s best since 2017. {See this press release from October 2024, MLB Finishes 2024 Season With Highest Attendance in Seven Years (mlb.com).}
(In case you are wondering, the MLB attendance record was set in 2007, with 32,696 per game.) {All-time MLB attendance on a sortable chart, here (baseball-reference.com).}
For 2025, two teams, the “Athletics” and the Tampa Bay Rays, are both stuck playing in tiny 10-thousand seat stadiums. The Athletics are playing in a 10.6-K-capacity ballpark because the franchise bolted from their Oakland home without securing a new venue, and now are playing for at least 3 seasons in a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento, CA before they move to Las Vegas in 2028 or 2029 [sigh]. The Rays are playing in a 10.0-K-capacity ballpark this year because the roof of their home in St. Petersburg, FL (Tropicana Field) was severely damaged in Hurricane Milton in October 2024, and so are playing at the Yankees’ spring training ballpark in Tampa, FL; see this from ESPN, MLB 2025: Inside the transformation of Steinbrenner Field.)
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Top 4 MLB teams with the highest average attendance in 2024. (All teams that drew above 40,000 per game.)…
1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 48,657 per game, with an increase of 1,286 per game from 2023 (and played to 86.8-%-capacity). The Dodgers have had the highest attendance in MLB now for 11 straight seasons (2013 to 2024, w/ the COVID-affected 2020 season excluded). And in 2024, the Dodgers won their first World Series title in a full season, since 1988 (a 36-year wait).
Photo: unattributed at rugoodet.live.
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2. Philadelphia Phillies: 41,527 per game (at 97.6-%-capacity). If the Phillies keep drawing this well – and playing this well – they could get to near 100%-capacity this year.
Photo: unattributed at mlb.com/phillies/tickets/specials/bennettstrong-foundation.
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3. San Diego Padres: 41,118 per game (at 103.1%-capacity). In 2024, the Padres were able to draw in excess of their seated capacity (of 39.8-K) thanks to the lawn seating behind the centerfield fence at Petco Park.
Photo: unattributed at linkedin.com.
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4. New York Yankees: 40,862 per game (at 87.8%-capacity). The Yankees drew their highest since 2018.
Photo: Luke Hales/Getty Images via sportico.com.
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The 6 Largest Attendance Increases in MLB in 2024…
1. Arizona Diamondbacks, attendance up +4,700 per game.
Arizona drew 24.2-K per game [20th best]. Arizona were 2023 National League pennant winners, so an increase in crowds was expected. And the Diamondbacks ended up winning 89 games, and drawing their best in 16 years. But they just missed out on the playoffs, losing out to both the Mets and the Braves on a 3-way tiebreaker.
Photo above – Rob Schumacher/The Republic at azcentral.com/.
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2. Kansas City Royals, attendance up +4,337 per game.
Kansas City drew 20.4-K per game [26th best]. The Royals improved by 30 wins in 2024, and made the playoffs for the first time in 9 years. In the postseason, the Royals swept the higher-seeded Orioles in the ALWCS, then fell to the Yankees in the ALDS, 3 games to 1.
Photo above – Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty Images via foxnews.com/lifestyle.
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3. Baltimore Orioles, attendance up +4,251 per game.
Baltimore drew 28.1-K per game [19th best]. The Orioles made the postseason for the 2nd straight season. But for the second straight years they were shut out in the playoffs, losing to the Royals in the wild card series.
Photo above – Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images via si.com/fannation.
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4. Philadelphia Phillies, attendance up +3,841 per game.
Philadelphia drew 41.5-K per game…2nd best in MLB. And the Phillies played to an MLB-2nd-best 96.7 percent capacity (only the San Diego Padres filled their ballpark better). In 2024, the Phillies made the playoffs for the third straight year, and they sold out Citizens Bank Park an impressive 47 times. In the playoffs, the Phillies lost to the Mets, 3 games to 1, in the NLDS.
Photo above – Philadelphia Phillies’ facebook.com via philadelphia.today.
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5. Cleveland Guardians, attendance up +3,060 per game.
Cleveland drew 25.7-K per game [20th best]. Cleveland won 16 more games than in 2023, en route to an AL Central title, and their third postseason in 5 years. In the playoffs, the Guardians beat Detroit in the ALDS, 3 games to 1. Then Cleveland lost to the Yankees in the ALCS, 4 games to 1.
Photo above – Cleveland Guardians’ facebook.com.
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6. Detroit Tigers, attendance up +3,030 per game.
Detroit drew 22.9-K per game [24th best]. The Tigers’ late-season run saw them pack Comerica Park and win just enough games to snag the last playoff spot. Detroit improved by 16 wins in 2024, and made the playoffs for the first time in a decade. In the playoffs, the lower-seeded Tigers swept the Astros in the ALWCS, then lost to Cleveland in the divisional series.
Photo above – Junfu Han / USA Today Network via audacy.com/971theticket/sports.
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Thanks to NuclearVacuum for the blank map, File:BlankMap-North America-Subdivisions.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for attendances, baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2024-misc.
Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.net, for several (~17) of the cap logos, sportslogos.net.
Thanks to the contributors at en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball#Current_teams.
