Weekend attendance MLB's highest before June since '17
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MLB just had one of its biggest early-season weekends in years.
Last weekend's games drew a total attendance of 1,518,016 fans from Friday through Sunday -- MLB's best weekend attendance in April or May in over six years.
The last weekend with a higher attendance before the start of June was the weekend of April 7-9, 2017, which had an attendance of 1,550,987.
Sunday was the high point of the weekend league-wide, as 546,569 fans attended the full slate of games, with all 30 teams in action and the Mets and Guardians playing a doubleheader.
That made it the highest-attended single day of MLB games since Oct. 1 of last season, which was the Saturday of the final weekend of the regular season and drew 581,314 total fans.
Sunday was also MLB's highest-attended day before the start of June since Opening Day 2019, which had an attendance of 604,274.
And it was the most-attended non-Opening Day during the first two months of the season in over five years. The last such day with a higher mark was May 19, 2018, with a total attendance of 558,035.
On Sunday, there were six games with over 40,000 fans in attendance, including 42,138 fans turning out to see superstar Shohei Ohtani take the mound at Angel Stadium for his 10th two-way start of the season, one of the Angels' highest-attended games of the year.
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The Dodgers-Cardinals series in St. Louis was also a highlight of the weekend. The series featured the top-attended game on each day, and those were the top three games for the weekend overall, including the No. 1 game on Saturday.
Dodgers-Cardinals attendance this weekend
Friday -- 44,774
Saturday -- 45,177
Sunday -- 44,721
Total -- 134,672
So was the Padres-Red Sox series in San Diego. The Padres sold out all three home games over the weekend, giving them 17 sellouts in 25 games at Petco Park this season.
Top series this weekend by avg. attendance
Dodgers at Cardinals -- 44,891
Cubs at Phillies -- 42,909
Red Sox at Padres -- 41,523
Mariners at Braves -- 40,292
Orioles at Blue Jays -- 38,580
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This weekend was MLB's highest-attended weekend overall since the final weekend of the 2022 season, which not only was the heat of the postseason race but featured Albert Pujols' final series in St. Louis and Aaron Judge's last series at Yankee Stadium as he chased 62 home runs.
That weekend drew 1,644,658 fans, but there were also 46 games played. This weekend's 1,518,016 attendance came over 45 games, making it MLB's highest-attended 45-game slate at any point since the weekend of June 21-23, 2019, which had an attendance of 1,575,354.