Major League Baseball per-game attendance was below 30,000 for the first time since 2003, as bad weather to begin the 2018 season impacted crowds all year.
All in all, 17 of the 30 MLB teams saw attendance drops when compared to 2017, as shown in this table:
| Team | Total | Gms | Av. | 2017A | +/- | |
| 1 | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3,857,500 | 82 | 47,042 | 46,492 | 0.01 |
| 2 | New York Yankees | 3,482,855 | 81 | 42,998 | 39,835 | 0.08 |
| 3 | St. Louis Cardinals | 3,403,587 | 81 | 42,019 | 42,567 | -0.01 |
| 4 | San Francisco Giants | 3,156,185 | 81 | 38,965 | 40,785 | -0.04 |
| 5 | Chicago Cubs | 3,181,089 | 82 | 38,793 | 39,500 | -0.02 |
| 6 | Los Angeles Angels | 3,020,216 | 81 | 37,286 | 37,278 | 0.00 |
| 7 | Colorado Rockies | 3,015,880 | 81 | 37,233 | 36,464 | 0.02 |
| 8 | Houston Astros | 2,980,549 | 81 | 36,796 | 29,674 | 0.24 |
| 9 | Boston Red Sox | 2,895,575 | 81 | 35,757 | 36,020 | -0.01 |
| 10 | Milwaukee Brewers | 2,850,875 | 81 | 35,195 | 31,589 | 0.11 |
| 11 | Washington Nationals | 2,529,604 | 80 | 31,620 | 31,172 | 0.01 |
| 12 | Atlanta Braves | 2,555,781 | 81 | 31,552 | 30,929 | 0.02 |
| 13 | Toronto Blue Jays | 2,325,281 | 80 | 29,066 | 39,554 | -0.27 |
| 14 | Seattle Mariners | 2,299,489 | 81 | 28,388 | 26,363 | 0.08 |
| 15 | New York Mets | 2,224,995 | 79 | 28,164 | 30,757 | -0.08 |
| 16 | Arizona Diamondbacks | 2,242,695 | 81 | 27,687 | 26,350 | 0.05 |
| 17 | Philadelphia Phillies | 2,158,124 | 79 | 27,318 | 24,118 | 0.13 |
| 18 | San Diego Padres | 2,147,000 | 80 | 26,837 | 26,401 | 0.02 |
| 19 | Texas Rangers | 2,107,107 | 81 | 26,013 | 30,960 | -0.16 |
| 20 | Minnesota Twins | 1,959,197 | 80 | 24,489 | 25,640 | -0.04 |
| 21 | Cleveland Indians | 1,926,701 | 80 | 24,083 | 25,285 | -0.05 |
| 22 | Detroit Tigers | 1,856,970 | 80 | 23,212 | 28,661 | -0.19 |
| 23 | Kansas City Royals | 1,665,107 | 81 | 20,556 | 27,754 | -0.26 |
| 24 | Cincinnati Reds | 1,629,356 | 81 | 20,115 | 22,677 | -0.11 |
| 25 | Chicago White Sox | 1,608,817 | 80 | 20,110 | 20,626 | -0.03 |
| 26 | Baltimore Orioles | 1,564,192 | 78 | 20,053 | 25,042 | -0.20 |
| 27 | Oakland Athletics | 1,573,616 | 81 | 19,427 | 18,446 | 0.05 |
| 28 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 1,465,316 | 78 | 18,786 | 23,696 | -0.21 |
| 29 | Tampa Bay Rays | 1,154,973 | 81 | 14,258 | 15,670 | -0.09 |
| 30 | Miami Marlins | 811,104 | 79 | 10,013 | 20,395 | -0.51 |
The numbers provided some mixed results when it came to the question of how team records affect attendance. Probably no surprise that Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Miami, Chicago White Sox and Minnesota struggled on the field, as did the Toronto Blue Jays. But Tampa Bay saw an attendance decline despite a competitive squad.
Not all the news was bad. The New York Yankees saw their highest attendance since 2012, and the Dodgers set a Dodger Stadium attendance record. In addition, the Houston Astros saw a big boost after a World Series win in 2017, and the Milwaukee Brewers saw a healthy boost in the Miller Park numbers that put them in the top 10 of MLB attendance.
As has been noted by everyone, unseasonably bad weather — including plenty of early season cold, snow and rain — impacted attendance in April and May. That put the numbers into an early hole, with 2018 attendance in the early season down over 6 percent over 2017. Bigger crowds returned over the summer, with attendance ending down only 4 percent. (We saw the same thing with MLS attendance, which began the season with an attendance dip but then surged in recent months.)