Hanwha Eagles players bow in front of their fans at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, after defeating the Lotte Giants 6-0 in their Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game on June 17, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean baseball league remained on pace to break its single-season attendance record after topping 6 million fans in the fewest number of games Tuesday.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the five games contested Tuesday drew a combined 77,583 fans, and the total pushed the attendance for the season to 6,046,360 after a record 350 games.
The previous mark for the fastest to 6 million fans had been the 418 games it took during the 2024 season.
The KBO finished that 2024 campaign with a record 10.88 million fans. With the 720-game season not quite at the halfway point, the KBO is on pace to top 12 million fans in 2025.
The KBO surpassed 5 million fans on June 3 and reached the next million mark just two weeks later.
The league-leading Hanwha Eagles visited third-place Lotte Giants at Sajik Baseball Stadium in the southeastern city of Busan, with a sellout crowd of 22,669 fans. It was the 169th sellout leaguewide this season, just 52 shy of matching the single-season record set in 2024.
Some 235 kilometers southeast of Seoul in Daegu, the Samsung Lions brought the Doosan Bears to their home at Daegu Samsung Lions Park and filled 23,044 out of 24,000 seats.
In the nation’s capital, the LG Twins hosted the NC Dinos in front of 15,069 fans at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, while the Kiwoom Heroes faced the SSG Landers before 6,205 fans at Gocheok Sky Dome.
The Kia Tigers faced the KT Wiz with 10,596 fans watching at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul.
Through Tuesday, KBO teams are averaging 17,275 fans per game, up about 17 percent from the same point of the 2024 season.
The Lions are leading all clubs with an average of 22,548 fans per game, with three other clubs also averaging over 20,000 fans at home.
The Eagles have sold out 32 of their 36 home games so far to lead the KBO, while the Lions have packed their stadium 31 times.
(Yonhap)
