In 2025, the Cubs crossed the three million tickets sold line for the first time since 2019, and wound up with a paid attendance of 3,017,983, or 37,259 per date.
That included two “home” games at the Tokyo Dome which had paid attendance of 42,365 and 42,367, above Wrigley Field’s current capacity of 41,649. For the 79 dates at Wrigley Field in 2025, the Cubs sold 2,933,251 tickets, or 37,129 per date.
They won’t get to the three million mark this year, as with four dates remaining the paid attendance
figure stands at 2,828,000, which is 172,000 short of that milestone. The Cubs would have to have paid attendance of 43,000 or more for the last four dates, which isn’t going to happen. They’ll probably wind up around 30,000 or so short of three million, so the average Wrigley crowd, which is currently 36,727, will also come up a little short of last year. The 2026 figures to date rank sixth in MLB in both total and average, behind the Dodgers, Yankees, Padres, Blue Jays and Phillies.
The team’s performance is going to wind up about the same this year compared to last, so what are the factors driving this small decrease?
In my view, it’s got to be the weather, which has been pretty awful all summer in Chicago — cooler than usual early in the season, then rainy for the last several weeks.
In 2025, the Cubs had 22 paid crowds at Wrigley of 40,000 or more, including two that crossed the 41,000 mark. This year there have been just 12 paid crowds of 40,000 or more at Wrigley Field, and the largest was 40,706, June 20 against the Blue Jays. (I think it’s pretty safe to say that none of the remaining four dates will have a paid attendance of 40,000 or more.)
Additionally, the Cubs had five weekdays in March and April this year with crowds of under 30,000. Last year they had four such dates — and if the schedule is played out as listed in 2027 (NARRATOR: “It probably won’t.”), there will again be five of those.
Of course, we all hope there will be more than just four dates remaining at Wrigley Field this year, and that the Cubs will at the very least host a Wild Card series at the end of September/beginning of October.
You can sign up for a Postseason ticket presale at this cubs.com link through 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday, Sept. 20. Good luck!
