Total average home attendance per team in the National Football League 2005-2019

The average total home attendance per team across the NFL during the 2019 regular season was 521,089, the lowest figure recorded in recent years. The franchise with the highest total attendance for its eight regular-season home games was the Dallas Cowboys and the team with the lowest was the Los Angeles Chargers.

A time-out to review NFL attendances

The relocation of the Chargers from San Diego to Los Angeles continued to be a major reason why the NFL average total home attendance per team was the lowest for many years. The team’s move resulted in a 56 percent decrease in the team’s total regular-season home attendance between 2016 and 2017, and although more fans attended during the 2018 and 2019 season, the figures are well below what they were in San Diego. The biggest decrease across the NFL between 2017 and 2018 was at the Washington Redskins. On the field, the team had identical records in both regular seasons, but the total regular-season home attendance dropped by 19 percent.

NFL scores TV ratings boost

The total number of fans attending games may have slightly decreased across the NFL in 2018, but the average television viewership of the regular season increased by around one million viewers in the United States. These figures were boosted by an increase in the average number of viewers watching Thursday Night Football and Monday Night Football in the United States in 2018. However, television viewership of the Super Bowl in the United States continues to decline: the lowest number of television viewers for more than ten years watched the showpiece culmination of the 2018 NFL season.