This season, the NPB is seeing growth in attendance rates among all 12 professional teams. On average, the league saw 30,724 fans per game, with the Central League averaging 33,827 fans and the Pacific averaging 27,622. In 2023, those figures were 32,913 fans in the Central League and 25,526 fans in the Pacific.
In each city, NPB clubs saw significant progress in fan attendance, with each team averaging at least 100 more fans than the previous year. Some teams, however, saw a drastic increase in attendance due to spiking popularity and newfound opportunity to watch.
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles saw the most significant percent increase in fan attendance, jumping 22.64% since 2023. It is followed by the Orix Buffaloes at 10.89% and the Chiba Lotte Marines at 6.61%.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, fan attendance in the NPB was among the highest in all professional sports, averaging 30,929 per game in 2019. However, the pandemic and specific regulations depleted attendance numbers in Japan. Once all restrictions on attendance and vocal cheering due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted, NPB Secretary General Atsushi Ihara hopes that attendance numbers will be restored to numbers reminiscent of the 2019 season.
With baseball’s popularity continuing to increase in Japan, the steady rise in attendance numbers could mean that in the next few seasons, the record crowd averages set in 2019 could be broken.
____
WBN NPB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/japan/
Photo Credit: This picture taken on April 10, 2022 shows people watching a Nippon Professional Baseball match between the Hanshin Tigers and Hiroshima Toyo Carp at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture, between Kobe and Osaka. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP) / TO GO WITH baseball-JPN-health-virus-Tigers,FOCUS by Andrew MCKIRDY (Photo by PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images)
