Attendance at Royals games has waxed and waned throughout the years, mirroring the fortunes of the team on the field. Periods of contention have reliably driven crowds well above the franchise’s baseline,
while prolonged rebuilding cycles have pushed attendance toward the bottom of the league.
Here’s a look at how Royals attendance has evolved over the years compared to MLB averages.
The Municipal Stadium Years (1969-1972)
Baseball was America’s #1 sport in the 1950s and 60s, but average per-game attendance was only about half what it is today. Baseball added four new teams in 1969 – the Royals, Seattle Pilots (who moved to Milwaukee after one year), San Diego Padres, and Montreal Expos. And yet attendance league-wide actually dipped by 1 percent to 13,992 fans per-game. The Expos were the only one of the four new teams to finish above-average in attendance, and the Padres were dead-last with just 6,333 fans per game.
The Royals finished 15th out of 24 clubs in per-game attendance, playing games in old Municipal Stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn. Just 17,688 fans came out on a cold and windy night to the first game in club history, half the stadium capacity of 34,164. They finished with the third-worst attendance in baseball the next year, but had a mild attendance bump by 1971 during the team’s first winning season. That didn’t carry over to 1972, as the Royals were one of eight clubs to draw fewer than 10,000 fans per game.
Here are ticket prices back in 1969, from the Royals team yearbook.
Early Royals Stadium (1973-1975)
The Royals enjoyed a pretty significant attendance bump after moving into brand new Royals Stadium, finishing tenth among all clubs in attendance in 1973, drawing more fans to the gate than the Yankees or either of the first-place AL clubs – the Orioles and Athletics. Attendance fell slightly the next two years as the team had a losing record in 1974, but bounced back with a then-club record 91 wins in 1975.
Here are 1975 ticket prices, from the team yearbook.
Western Division Dynasty (1976-1985)
The Royals soon became a fixture in the postseason, reaching the playoffs seven times in ten years. They became one of the top draws in baseball, finishing among the top six clubs in attendance every year between 1976 and 1982, except for 1979, when they finished seventh. But the Dodgers emerged as the top-drawing club in the game, becoming the first team ever to draw 3 million fans in a season in 1978.
Attendance actually went down in 1984, when the Royals went on a very late charge and won an unexpected division title. They got their attendance bump the next year, an 18 percent increase as they went on to win the first championship in club history.
Here is the ticket information for the 1980 season.
Post-first championship (1986-1994)
The Royals enjoyed another attendance bump in the year after their title, a 9 percent increase despite a losing season in which they lost popular manager Dick Howser to cancer. Attendance would continue to increase through 1989, when they topped 30,000 fans per-game for the first time in franchise history, a mark they wouldn’t reach again until 2015.
MLB attendance really began to take off in the mid-80s, going from 22,589 fans per game league-wide when the Royals won the 1985 title to 31,256 fans per-game when the players went on strike in 1994. New stadiums brought large new crowds in Baltimore, Cleveland, Texas, and Toronto, and new expansion teams in Colorado and Florida initially drew massive crowds in temporary homes in NFL stadiums.
Here are Royals ticket prices from the 1990 team yearbook.
Post-Kauffman (1995-2006)
Team founder and longtime owner Ewing Kauffman died in 1993, and his wife, Muriel, died a year later, leaving the team in the hands of a non-profit. Small market teams cut costs in the post-work-stoppage environment, leaving the Royals to flounder in the standings. Large market clubs like the Yankees and Dodgers were huge gate draws, while the Pirates, Royals, and Expos drew much smaller crowds. The Rays and Marlins also quickly sunk to the bottom of the league in attendance.
Here are ticket prices for the 2006 season.
Dayton Moore years (2007-2022)
The Royals had the sixth-lowest attendance the year they made a late run and won a surprise pennant in 2014. But fans came out in droves the next year, giving the Royals a 38 percent bump in attendance. That year, 2.7 million fans came to the K, tenth-most in baseball. The team averaged 33,439 fans per game, still the most well-attended season in club history.
Attendance league-wide was at its healthiest in the first 15 years of the century, with all but a handful of clubs averaging at least 20,000 fans per-game. MLB attendance peaked in 2008, with an average of 32,382 fans attending big league games that year. But by the end of this period, several clubs began “tanking” or were just plain lousy, leading to sparse crowds. In 2020, no fans were permitted due to the COVID pandemic, and crowds were restricted the following season.
The Royals began “dynamic pricing” in 2013, with ticket prices fluctuating based on demand. According to Statista, the average ticket price at Kauffman Stadium went from $19.83 in 2013 to $24.73 in 2014, when the Royals won the pennant, to $29.76 in their championship 2015 season.
J.J. Picollo years (2023-present)
After years of rebuilding after the championship core departed after 2017, the Royals began to build attendance back up once J.J. Picollo took over in 2023. A playoff run in 2024 boosted attendance, and that increase continued to 2025 when the team drew 21,590 fans per game, their best numbers since 2017.
Baseball recovered from the pandemic, although with slightly lower attendance numbers than before. The Athletics and Rays each played in minor league stadiums in 2025, limiting their already small attendance figures. The league overall has not averaged 30,000+ fans per game since 2016.
Statista lists the average Royals ticket price as $37.43 in 2024.
