Cubs saw an unsurprising boost in Wrigley Field attendance in 2025

Now that the dust has settled on the 2025 Chicago Cubs season, let's check in on Wrigley Field attendance this year. For the first time since 2019, the North Siders hit the 3 million fan mark, drawing 3,017,983 total fans (sixth in baseball), averaging 37,259 fans per game.

It’s worth noting that their road attendance (33,946) was second-highest in baseball behind the Dodgers. Also note that their first two official 'home' games were at the Tokyo Dome in the season-opening Tokyo Series back in March.

Regardless, they drew more than they have since the pre-pandemic era, and it’s not rocket science to understand Cubs attendance trends and numbers.

Wrigley Field itself gives the Cubs a solid attendance floor every year

The size of the fanbase and the destination that is Wrigley Field will always land the Cubs in the top-10 in attendance, regardless of how good the team is. It’s been this way for several decades now. They have not drawn lower than 2.6 million since 1997 (not counting COVID-impacted seasons). Attendance will fluctuate between 2.6 and 3 million, depending on the quality of the team. From 2022 to 2024, they drew between 2.6 and 2.9 million, which were non-playoff seasons.

Let’s face it, the gameday experience is as expensive as ever, and it’s harder for some to justify spending the money to go if the product is not of the desired quality. Especially after the standards changed following their World Series win nine years ago.

Making the postseason for the first time since 2020 and hosting postseason games at Wrigley with fans in the stands for the first time since 2018 unsurprisingly brought more people to the park. It was not at the 2016-2019 level, where 3.1+ million showed up and Wrigley averaged between 38-39K fans per game, but it was closer to that than recent years.

In-season attendance trends were pretty typical of a Cubs season. Fewer fans in the stands early on when the weather was still cold and/or rainy, with crowds getting larger as the warm weather came and clearer indications that the Cubs would be in a pennant race.

The largest attended game at Wrigley in the regular season was on June 19 against the Brewers when 41,078 showed up on a Thursday afternoon. Many of the other top-attended games at the Friendly Confines were interleague matches against teams like the Red Sox, Orioles and Mariners.

Assuming the Cubs make some moves this winter and bring out another postseason-caliber team, it feels like a solid bet they will draw 3 million again next year. With that said, few Cubs fans want to read these numbers and then sympathize with “breaking even” comments.