MLS Attendance Records 2026: Which Clubs Draw the Biggest Crowds?

Data-driven piece ranking MLS clubs by average attendance and total attendance this season. Include historical context on attendance growth and which expansion clubs are drawing big numbers. Taps into American sports culture where attendance figures are widely discussed and searched.

Soccer in America has been building toward something for years. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and you can feel the momentum in MLS stadiums right now. The season opened in February with 387,271 fans attending across a single weekend, a record for any matchday in league history. The question is which clubs are driving those numbers, and how far the league has come to get here. Let’s get into it. 

The highest average attendances in MLS this season

With the 2026 regular season still in its early weeks, the 2025 final figures give the most complete picture of where each club stands. The league averaged 21,988 fans per game across the 2025 regular season, a 5% dip from the record high set in 2024. Despite that, 19 clubs still surpassed 20,000 fans per game in 2025.

The top clubs by average attendance in 2025

The 2026 season has started with stronger numbers. Opening weekend drew 387,271 total fans across the league, averaging 25,818 per game, a 17% increase over the 2025 regular-season average. The marquee clash was LAFC hosting Inter Miami at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where 75,673 fans attended, the highest-attended opening-weekend game in MLS history and the second-largest standalone crowd in league history. So far in 2026, the league is averaging around 24,500 fans per game.

How MLS attendance has grown over the years

Major League Soccer (MLS) began in 1996 with an average of 17,406 fans per game before dipping to a low of around 13,756 in 2000. That low came before a steady rebuilding that would take the league to a fundamentally different place.

The first major shift came with soccer-specific stadiums. Through the 2000s, clubs moved out of shared NFL and baseball venues into purpose-built grounds where supporter culture could develop. The results showed in the numbers.

The second shift was Seattle. When the Sounders joined in 2009, they reset the standard for average MLS attendance and overall relevance. Lumen Field brought NFL-scale crowds to a soccer club consistently for the first time.

The third was Atlanta. The highest average attendance during a regular season was reached in 2018 when Atlanta United matches were attended by an average of 53,002 spectators. Their arrival in 2017 showed that the right combination of market, stadium and ambition could lift the ceiling for every club in the league.

With an average of approximately 23,200 per match in 2024, MLS surpassed the Canadian Football League for the first time and rose to be the third-highest average attendance league among professional sports in the United States and Canada. The all-time single-game record is 82,110, set at the Rose Bowl on July 4, 2023, when LA Galaxy beat LAFC 2-1.

Which new clubs are drawing the biggest crowds?

The expansion story of recent years is one of the more compelling in American sports. Charlotte FC joined in 2022 and averaged 36,228 fans in their inaugural season at Bank of America Stadium, immediately making them the second-highest attended club in MLS. Their numbers have softened since, down to 30,664 in 2025, but they remain firmly in the top three, proof that the Southeast is genuine MLS territory.

St. Louis CITY SC launched in 2023 with perhaps the deepest local passion for soccer of any American city that had been without a top-flight club. They finished their debut season as Western Conference champions and brought the kind of energy the league had been hoping that market would deliver.

The story dominating 2025 and carrying into 2026 is San Diego FC. The club broke MLS expansion records for both wins and points in their inaugural season, while finishing fourth in the league in average attendance at 28,064 fans per game at Snapdragon Stadium. Their first home game, a 0-0 draw with St. Louis on March 1, 2025, drew 34,506 fans, the largest crowd in the stadium's history.

San Diego enters 2026 as one of the most watched second-year clubs in league history. With the World Cup arriving in North America this summer and a six-week MLS break planned to accommodate it, the league is entering the most visible period in its 30-year existence. The numbers suggest American soccer fans are ready.

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