Professional baseball, 5th time in history to reach 8 million spectators fastest pace

Spectators filling up Jamsil Stadium in Seoul.

The 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League is about to reach 8 million spectators. It is challenging the 5th milestone at the fastest pace ever.

The Korea Baseball Organization announced on the 13th, “This year’s KBO League has reached a total of 7,988,527 spectators in 545 games as of the 11th. There are 11,473 left to reach 8 million spectators.”

From the 2015 season, when the 720-game regular season system began, to the 2023 season, the league has surpassed 8 million spectators a total of four times (2016, 2017, 2018, 2023). Of these, the smallest number of games was achieved in the 2016 season, with 693 games and a final attendance of 8,339,577 spectators.

Even as the regular season draws to a close, all 10 KBO teams are continuing to have an average attendance of over 10,000. As of the 11th, the average attendance was 14,658, which is an increase from the average attendance of 14,529 when the league surpassed 7 million.

The LG Twins ranked first with an average attendance of 19,220. LG’s average attendance increased from the average attendance of 18,974 on July 27, when the league surpassed 7 million. The

Samsung Lions (17,485) ranked second, followed by the Doosan Bears (17,297) and the KIA Tigers (17,249).

In addition, all 10 teams showed a 34% increase in attendance compared to the number of home games last year. The cumulative attendance is also increasing rapidly for all 10 teams. Doosan surpassed 1 million cumulative spectators for the first time among the 10 teams in the game against LG on the 8th. LG (999,414), Samsung (979,145), and KIA (948,704) are also expected to reach 1 million cumulative spectators soon. KBO said, “With about 76% of the total schedule completed, the 2024 KBO League is expected to break the record for the largest spectator season in history (8,406,888 in 2017).” 파워볼사이트