South Korean Baseball League Tops 8 Million Fans, Sets New Attendance Record Pace

The South Korean baseball league topped 8 million fans for the season in record-setting fashion Sunday.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced the total attendance for the ongoing campaign reached 8,007,967 after five games played nationwide Sunday. The league topped the 8 million mark in 443 games, beating the previous record of 465 games from the 2025 season.

The KBO set a single-season attendance record in 2025 with just over 12.3 million fans and remains on pace to break that mark this year.

The league has cleared every million mark in record-breaking pace so far this year. It needed 55 games to go from 7 million to 8 million, breaking the record of 60 games set in 2025.

According to the KBO, teams are averaging 18,077 fans per game, up from 16,809 fans per game from the same point last season.

Two of the five games played Sunday were sold out: the Samsung Lions hosted the Lotte Giants before 24,000 fans at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu and the SSG Landers played the Kia Tigers in front of 23,000 fans at Incheon SSG Landers Field in the western city of Incheon.

There have been 241 sellouts so far this year, putting the previous record of 331, set last year, in jeopardy.

The KBO said eight of its 10 clubs have enjoyed a year-on-year increase in their average home attendance. Even the two clubs whose attendance numbers have fallen, the Hanwha Eagles and the Lotte Giants, have had those figures fall by only a few hundreds.