May Attendance Update: 1.7% increase accross MLB, 40% increase in Baltimore

My name is Peter and I'm addicted to baseball attendance numbers. 

You know this if you have listened to our podcast or read my articles over the past two years. For some reason, I love tracking MLB attendance and looking for trends in the data. So every month this season, please allow me to indulge this obsession. After one month of the season, the outlook is quite optimistic. 

Year	Att/Game	Total Att
2016	29,082	11,051,325
2017	29,593	11,245,272
Difference	+511	+193,497

This data comes from Baseball-Reference and compares the number of home games played for a team this year with that same amount from 2016. So it's not a perfect measurement, but you can see general trends easily. The above chart shows an increase of 1.7%. By the end of the year, that will most likely be down to less than 1% in either direction; it's very difficult to move the needle substantially year to year. Let's take a look at the overall numbers since 2010.

MLB Attendance Per Game

As I said, it's very hard to see huge growth or decline in the short term. The biggest change occurred from 2011 to 2012—around a 1.6% jump.

Lastly, let's take a look at the teams that have had the biggest shifts so far this year. Hello, Baltimore.

Biggest Increases

Team	2016	2017	Difference
Orioles	20,311	28,430	8,119 (40%)
Phillies	25,004	31,100	6,095 (24%)
Nationals	26,145	32,211	6,067 (23%)
Indians	14,373	20,376	6,003 (42%)
Braves	24,625	29,633	5,008 (20%

Biggest Decreases

Team	2016	2017	Difference
Royals	33,097	26,502	-6,596 (-20%)
Mets	32,642	28,950	-3,692 (-11%)
Pirates	26,884	23,556	-3,318 (-12%)
Athletics	19,595	16,684	-2,911 (-15%)
Diamondbacks	26,503	23,810	-2,692 (-10%)