Attendance History

Shown here is the complete historical attendance for each season the Texas Rangers have been in existence, including information on the years they spent as the Washington Senators.

Up until late in the 2019 season, I didn’t realize the Rangers calculated average by number of DATES played, not number of games, so I had to adjust my numbers and re-research everything to make sure I was correct.  This document was completely overhauled after the end of the 2019 season, and should be considered accurate.  All data was manually researched from old media guides.  Mostly by myself, but partially with the help of Tim Lange.

• * – The record for 1981 was a total season record, combining both halves of that strike shortened season into one.
• ** – The strike shortened season of 1994 prevented what would have been the Rangers first division win, and the first division win that I can think of with a team under .500.
• From 1961 to 1968, the AL had one division, consisting of 10 teams
• From 1969 to 1976, the AL had two divisions, East & West, consisting of 6 teams
• From 1977 to 1993, the AL had two divisions, East & West, consisting of 7 teams
• From 1994 to 2012, the AL had three divisions, East, Central, & West, consisting of 5,5,4 teams
• From 2013 to current, it was mostly the same, except the West had 5 teams with the movement of the Astros to the AL.
• *** – For 2020, there were no fans in attendance at any game, and as such I’m not counting 2020 in the averages or totals, but still listed it, since games did occur.
• For 2021, we ranked first in MLB for team attendance.  This mostly has to do with us having 100% capacity from game 1, we were the only team to do that – all others were under some sort of covid attendance restriction.
• Average is computed by total attendance divided by number of dates (not games played).

*** Washington Senators Notes ***

For those who might forget, the Washington Senators left Washington after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins. The replacement Washington senators (who started in 1961) left after the 1971 season, and became the Texas Rangers.  Most folks call the Twins/Senators the original and the Rangers/Senators the second, when in fact the TRUE original Washington Senators existed from 1891-1899, and were contracted out of existence. What is generally accepted (incorrectly) as the original Senators came into existence in 1901.