2026 professional baseball sets new record for largest audience ever... Cumulative number exceeds 12.36 million

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Cheon Byeong-hyuk = The 2026 professional baseball team, which is fiercely competing for rankings until the end of the season, has set a record for the largest number of spectators in history.

On the 5th, the KBO announced that a total of 95,922 people attended five stadiums across the country, recording a cumulative season attendance of 12.362 million (average of 17,685).

As a result, it broke the previous record of 12,312,519 set last year and set a new record for the largest number of spectators ever.

Although 30 games of the All Professional Baseball League were canceled due to the heatwave last August and representative players were selected during the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the box office fever was hotter than any other year.

This year's KBO League, which set a record of 1 million spectators, exceeded 12 million spectators on the 1st after 684 games, the lowest ever, and also broke the record for the highest attendance of the season after 699 games.

The average number of spectators per game was 17,685, an increase of approximately 4% compared to the same number of games last year.

331 games, or 47.4% of the games played so far, were sold out, and the league's overall seat occupancy rate was a whopping 85.2%.

By team, the Samsung Lions have the most with 1,669,050, followed by the LG Twins (1,574,738) and the Doosan Bears (1,483,772).

For the first time, eight teams exceeded 1 million spectators: Lotte Giants (1,282,929), KIA Tigers (1,217,388), SSG Landers (1,213,900), Hanwha Eagles (1,129,50), and KT Wiz (1,004,272).

The box office craze continued to the home screen as well.

As of September 27, the average combined viewership rating for professional baseball TV was 1.22%, up 6.1% from 1.15% last year.

The average total number of viewers per game was 283,408, a 3.83% increase from 272,957 last year.

Professional baseball, which started with 1,438,768 spectators in 1982, the first year of its launch, exceeded 10 million spectators for the first time in 2024.

The KBO League, which set a new record for the largest number of spectators this season after exceeding 12 million for the first time last year, is expected to continue its record-breaking streak with 21 games remaining.