Back at the Trop, the Rays Add 628,000 Fans and Push MLB to Its Best Crowds Since 2017

MLB drew 71.75 million fans this season, its highest total since 2017, and a big piece of the increase came from one building: Tropicana Field.

After a year at Steinbrenner Field while hurricane damage was repaired, the Rays came home and drew 1,414,975, up 628,255, the biggest jump in baseball. Steinbrenner held 10,046 for their games. The Trop drew as many as 28,055 this year, and the team won the AL East.

League-wide, teams averaged 29,589 over 2,425 dates, up 0.4%. It's the fourth straight year of growth, something that hadn't happened since 2004-07. Thirteen teams went up and 17 went down.

The winners

• Dodgers: a team-record 4,034,219, an average of 49,805, the most in the sport.

• White Sox: up 540,687 to 1,986,425 after three straight 100-loss seasons turned into a wild-card berth.

• Blue Jays: up 488,943 to 3,338,878 after last year's pennant.

• Mariners: up 345,745 to 2,883,798 after coming within a win of the World Series.

Five teams topped 3 million, one fewer than last year.

The losers

The Mets opened the season with the highest payroll in baseball, lost 12 straight in April and finished last in the NL East for the first time since 2003. Their attendance fell 472,450 to 2,712,120, the largest drop of any team.

Houston won the AL West at 81-81, the worst record ever for a first-place team, and drew 255,759 fewer fans. Kansas City dropped 221,703, and Arizona, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Colorado and Philadelphia each fell by 100,000 to 200,000.

The Athletics, in their second season at a minor league park in West Sacramento before a planned 2028 move to Las Vegas, had the lowest attendance in the majors: 799,240, or 9,867 a game.