NFL Stadium Average Attendance By Team And Year

NFL team attendance leaders for the 2022 season are the Dallas Cowboys with an average of 82,915 attendance followed by the New York Jets with 73,633.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable NFL team in 2023 with a value of $7.64 billion. So, it seems quite obvious that they are the top franchise in the league to garner a tremendous crowd.

Here is a list of average NFL attendance rankings per game:

NFL attendance by year shows that a total of 18.82 million audiences were present in the regular season in 2022. The average attendance per game was 69,389.

In 2021 the average number of attendees was 67,288 per game based on Statista. On average, more than 16 million fans arrive at the stadium every year.

The Dallas Cowboys contributed largely to this data because they witness the biggest crowd every year. For the previous season, fans paid $111.75 on average for the ticket.

Looking at the history of the National Football League, it is evident that the popularity of the league and the number of attendees are directly proportional to each other.

Nevertheless, there are a few exceptions. For instance, in 2008, an average of 68,245 audiences bought tickets per game to enjoy the match.

The average number decreased to 67,506 in 2009. If we go back to the early 1920s when the league was taking baby steps, the stadium saw a significantly lesser audience.

There are several factors that affect the number of live audiences like the popularity of the teams, players, or the league in general.

Meanwhile, building stadiums with larger seating capacities and better facilities saw bigger crowds. Also, after Super Bowl started in 1967, the influx of masses has elevated.

Here is a list of the average per-game attendance from the year 2008 to 2022:

• 2008 – 68,245
• 2009 – 67,506
• 2010 – 66,957
• 2011 – 67,419
• 2012 – 67,632
• 2013 – 68,397
• 2014 – 68,331
• 2015 – 68,216
• 2016 – 69,487
• 2017 – 67,405
• 2018 – 67,040
• 2019 – 66,151
• 2020 – 5,721
• 2021 – 67,288
• 2022 – 69,389

NFL draft attendance 2023 was 312,000. The latest drafting process was held at Union Station Kansas City, Missouri from the 27th to the 29th of April.

The 88th annual meeting for the recruitment of new players saw a rise in the audience. It is the draft with the highest number of presence after 2019.

Over 300,000 people witnessed quarterback Bryce Young getting recruited by the league. Young was selected in the first round as the 1st overall pick by the Carolina Panthers this season.

Apart from that, is to be noted that just after 2019, the 2020 draft was held virtually which means zero live attendees.

The whole world is moving on from Covid-19 and its after-effects and it is the same for the National Football League as well.

Although only 160,000 people were seen in 2021, it rose to almost double, 300,000 in 2022.

Below is the list of the total number of people who were present at the drafting process from 2015 to 2023 along with the location where it was organized:

• 2015 – 200,000 (Chicago)
• 2016 – 225,000 (Chicago)
• 2017 – 250,000 (Philadelphia)
• 2018 – 200,000 (Dallas)
• 2019 – 600,000 (Nashville)
• 2020 – Virtual (due to the global pandemic)
• 2021 – 160,000 (Cleveland)
• 2022 – 300,000 (Las Vegas)
• 2023 – 312,000 (Kansas City)

Lowest attendance in an NFL game was 5721 on average documented in 2020. This is by far the lowest number of audience in the 102-year-old history of the league.

Only 6623 audiences were present to attend the Miami Dolphins game in 2022.

Looking back at history, the games with the lowest attendance from the 90s are listed below:

• Cincinnati Bengals Vs Houston Oilers – 15,131 (1995)
• Cincinnati Bengals Vs Tennessee Oilers – 17,071 (1997)
• Baltimore Ravens Vs Tennessee Oilers – 17,737 (1997)
• Indianapolis Colts Vs New England Patriots – 19,429 (1992)
• Baltimore Ravens Vs Houston Oilers – 20,082 (1996)

NFL Stadium Attendance Down

NFL attendance decline was recorded at 2.37 million in the 2020 season. The only reason behind this dramatic decrement is the Coronavirus disease.

Due to this widely infectious virus, the whole world went into lockdown. The National Football League also had to face the consequences of the pandemic.

Despite that, the 101st season of the National Football League was held from 10 September 2010 to 3 January 2021.

The league championship was held on 7 February 2021 where Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The league has to be applauded for its effort to finish the season per the original schedule because all 256 games were played.

But they had to cancel the preseason games with great displeasure. Also, they conducted many of the games without any crowds while some matches were held in the presence of a few people.

The same applied to the Pro Bowl that year. Nonetheless, to play without the presence of a live crowd is not so exciting and thrilling.

That is why, the National Football League arranged artificial crowd noise in 2020 at every stadium where the audience was below 10,000.

In addition, Microsoft which had been associated with the league for a long time created a technology called Fan Mosaic to provide a medium for fans to connect with their favorite teams and players.

Well, a game without the crowd’s enthusiasm, energy, cheers, and applause is no fun. The technology company should be thanked for providing rich virtual experiences to the fan.

Some teams allowed fans during some of their home matches. Below is the list of crowds during the home games where visitors were allowed by the NFL franchises:

1. Arizona Cardinals – 1200 ( total 2 home games)
2. Atlanta Falcons – 500 at first but increased to 10,000 in latter games (total 6 home games)
3. Baltimore Ravens – 3000 (1 game only)
4. Buffalo Bills – 0
5. Carolina Panthers – 5,240 (total 7 games)
6. Chicago Bears – 0
7. Cincinnati Bengals – 6,000 for 1 and 12,000 each for the remaining 6 (7 games)
8. Cleveland Browns – 6,000 for 1 and 12,000 each for the remaining 7 (8 games)
9. Dallas Cowboys – 25,000 (8 games)
10. Denver Broncos – 500 for the home opening game and 5700 for the remaining 3 (4 games)
11. Detroit Lions – 0
12. Green Bay Packers – 9000 (2 home playoffs)
13. Houston Texas – 13,200 (7 games)
14. Indianapolis Colts – 2500 for home opener (8 games)
15. Jacksonville Jaguars – 25% capacity (8 games)
16. Kansas City Cheifs – 22% capacity (8 games)
17. Las Vegas Raiders – 0
18. Los Angeles Chargers – 0
19. Los Angeles Rams – 0
20. Miami Dolphins – 13,000 for each home match (8 games)
21. Minnesota Vikings – 0
22. New England Patriots – 0
23. New Orleans Saints – 3000 fans were allowed in each match (5 home playoffs)
24. New York Giants – 0
25. New York Jets – 0
26. Philadelphia Eagles – 7500 were allowed at each match (3 games)
27. Pittsburgh Steelers – 2500 were allowed for each match (3 games)
28. San Francisco 49ers – 0
29. Seattle Seahawks – 0
30. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 25% capacity (7 home playoffs)
31. Tennessee Titans – 10 to 15% capacity (7 home playoffs)
32. Washington Redskins – 3000 (1 game)

Largest NFL game attendance is 105,121 in the year 2009 for the 90th season of the league. This record was set during the match held between Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants.

It was a Sunday night match played at the AT&T Stadium located in Arlington, Texas. It was the newly built home for the Cowboys, so, many people supposedly bought the tickets.

Interestingly, the total seating capacity of the Cowboys’ home is 80,000, but it can be expanded to 105,000. 121 more people were present at this game than the maximum capacity.

However, the Cowboys got defeated by the Giants, 33-31. Coach Tom Coughlin was present from the Giant’s side whereas the Dallas Cowboys had Wade Phillips as the coach.

Previously, the game held in Mexico City at the Azteca Stadium in the year 2005 used to be recognized for achieving this feat with a total attendance of 103,467 as mentioned by NFL.

It was the match played by the Arizona Cardinals against the San Francisco 49ers. Al the fans of the Cardinals came out triumphant as their team won with the score of 31-14.

Here are some notable NFL games where an incredibly large number of people were present:

• Super Bowl XIV – 103,985 (Los Angeles Rams Vs Pittsburgh Steelers)
• Preseason Match of 1994 – 112,376 (Cowboys Vs Houston Oilers)
• Exhibition Game of 1947 – 105,840 ( Chicago Bears Vs college all-star team)