The NFL had one of its best seasons in 2022, with certain numbers hitting highs unseen since 2016.
According to Sports Business Journal, the league saw its highest attendance in six years this season. Of course, attendance was expected to beat that of the pandemic years, but it even beat the years leading up to the world crisis.
The publication reports that NFL games attracted 69,442 fans on average, the most since 2016.
As for total attendance, the reported 18.8 million marks the highest in league history. This is partly because there were more fixtures on the calendar due to the more recent 17-game season, which makes per-game average a better indicator of the league’s success.
The Detroit Lions had a 23.1 percent increase in attendance, a league-best, while the Jaguars were second in such regard with an increase of 10.1 percent. The Chicago Bears suffered the worst decline among teams that played all their home games on U.S. soil and didn’t venture abroad, with attendance going down 1.7 percent from 2021.
The NFL sold 96.7 percent of all its tickets, which marks a rise from the 94.6 percent sale from pre-pandemic 2019.
