Average per game attendance of major US sports leagues 2016/17

About This Statistic

The statistic depicts the average per game attendance of the five major sports leagues in North America (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS). Figures are for the most recently completed season unless otherwise noted. The average per game attendance at Major League Soccer games was 21,692 during the 2016 season.

Major sports leagues attendance - additional information

The National Football League was the major sports league with the highest average attendance in North America in the 2016-2017 season, with an average of 69,487 people attending each game. The regular season games of all NFL teams were attended by a total of 17.79 million spectators in 2016, an increase from the 17.26 million who went to the games in 2015. The home games of the Dallas Cowboys were the most attended in 2016 with a total of 740,318 spectators passing through the gates at an average of 92,539 fans per game.

Major League Baseball (MLB) drew the second highest average amount of fans with 30,163 spectators per game and a total of 73.16 million people attending games throughout the regular season. The Los Angeles Dodgers remained the best supported team for the third year running, welcoming a total of 3.7 million fans in 2016, at an average of 45,719 spectators per game.

Interest in Major League Soccer continues to grow with an average of 21,692 attending the soccer matches in the 2016/17 season. The amount of people who watch MLS on television has also increased from 20 million in 2013 to 30 million in 2015. Attendances in the NHL have also risen steadily in recent years, as seen by the increase in average regular season attendance from 16,523 in 2010/11 to 17,548 in 2015/16. The Chicago Blackhawks attracted the largest average crowds in the 2015/16 NHL season with an average of 21,859 fans attending each game and around 896,000 total spectators throughout the whole season.