Major League Baseball attendance rose for the fourth straight year to 71.75 million, reaching its highest total since 2017, with a boost from the Tampa Bay Rays' return to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
Teams averaged 29,589 for 2,425 dates, a 0.4% increase from the average of 29,471 last year, when attendance totaled 71.4 million. MLB attendance has risen in four straight seasons for the first time since 2004-07.
Tampa Bay had the biggest increase, up 628,255 to 1,414,975 as the Rays won the AL East for the first time since 2021. That ranked 28th out of MLB's 30 teams.
The Trop hosted 24 games with more than 20,000 people and seven with more than 24,000.
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The Rays spent 2025 at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees’ spring training ballpark in Tampa, while damage to their stadium from Hurricane Milton was repaired. In Tampa, the Rays drew 786,750, 29th best in MLB. The ballpark's capacity was 10,046.
Tropicana FIeld typically closes the 300-level upper deck, limiting seating to about 25,000. With the top tier, capacity increases to 31,042.
The team opened the level for four games this season:
- Aug. 15 against the Baltimore Orioles, followed by a Jordan Davis concert, which brought out the season's biggest crowd of 28,055.
- The July three-game series against the Seattle Mariners that included Evan Longoria's number retirement and induction in the team Hall of Fame. The weekend games drew 22,597 and 24,997.
This season's total bested the 2024 attendance of 1,337,739 at the Trop, but was comparable to the 1,440,301 or 2023.
The Rays will play either the Yankees or Boston Red Sox in the AL Division Series, with Game 1 scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Tropicana Field. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is on Monday at 8 p.m. at the Trop.
Thirteen MLB teams had increases and 17 dropped, including the Miami Marlins, which went from 28th to 29th 1,231,018.
Five clubs topped 3 million, down from six last year and matching 2024. There were eight in 2023.
The two-time World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers led the sport with a team-record 4,034,219, an average of 49,805.
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The Chicago White Sox, who earned an AL wild card this year by finishing with an 84-78 record following three straight 100-loss seasons, rose 540,687 to 1,986,425.
Toronto, coming off an AL pennant in 2025, increased 488,943 to 3,338,878, and Seattle, which came within one win of reaching its first World Series in 2025, rose 345,745 to 2,883,798.
The New York Mets, who entered the season with the sport's highest payroll, had the biggest decline, a 472,450 drop to 2,712,120. The Mets had a 12-game losing streak in April and finished last in the NL East for the first time since 2003.
Houston fell 255,759 to 2,472,118 despite winning the AL West title — with an 81-81 record that was the poorest for a first-place team. Kansas City dropped 221,703 to 1,527,098 and Arizona, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Colorado and Philadelphia all experienced decreases of 100,000 to 200,000.
The Athletics, based for a second season at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, before a planned move to a new Las Vegas ballpark in 2028, drew a major league-low attendance of 799,240 and average of 9,867. They played six games at Las Vegas Ballpark, another minor league stadium, and averaged 9,983 in West Sacramento and 8,451 in Las Vegas.
WUSF's Rick Mayer contributed to this report.
