Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
Major League Baseball attendance was still down in 2022 from its pre-pandemic marks — but there’s hope that the hangover won’t last.
A total of 64,556,678 announced fans attended MLB regular-season games in 2022, bringing the per-game average to 26,843.
- The league showed marked improvement from 2021’s 18,901 per game, when crowds were restricted in many stadiums.
- Attendance this season was down 5.7% compared to 2019’s 68.5 million — 28,339 per game — a drop that MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden attributed to pandemic caution early in the season.
- Even before the pandemic, MLB attendance was on a steady decline from 2007’s peak of 79.5 million fans.
It wasn’t all bad news for MLB: The league is expected to top 2019’s $10.7 billion in revenue.
Playoff Bump
With the postseason’s four wild card series starting on Friday, MLB could get a strong boost. The eight top-drawing teams all made the playoffs..
The league is debuting a new playoff format this season, with six teams in each league qualifying for the postseason —two receive first-round byes, while the remaining four will play best-of-three series.
Disney holds the broadcast rights to the first round as part of its seven-year extension with MLB signed last year. Games will appear on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2.
Download the FOS App
The business of sports, in your pocket.
Scan the QR code to get the app now.
