Seoul: In the midst of a successful campaign, the South Korean baseball league has cleared its latest million milestone in record-breaking fashion Thursday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the five games played Thursday evening drew 80,487 fans, and the total attendance for the season reached 8,028,733 after a record 465 games.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the previous record for the fewest number of games to 8 million fans was the 549 games it took in the 2024 season. The KBO finished that year with a record 10.88 million fans and is on pace for about 12 million fans in 2025. The league has surpassed every million mark at a record pace so far this year, taking just 60 games to go from 7 million to 8 million.
This year's total so far is already the sixth-highest attendance figure for a season, with one week left in July. The 10 teams are averaging 17,266 fans per game, up about 17 percent from the same point last season. With two more sellouts Thursday, the KBO matched the single-season record of 221 set in 2024.
One of the sold-out games was played at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, where 23,750 fans watched first-place Hanwha Eagles play the home team Doosan Bears. This was the record-tying 20th consecutive sellout for the Eagles, counting both home and road games. They will be home in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul, for a three-game set against the SSG Landers starting Friday. They have sold out 39 of their 43 games so far at the new Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark.
The Samsung Lions recorded their 38th sellout of the season Thursday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, about 235 km southeast of Seoul, though they lost to the Landers 3-1. In other games Thursday, the Lotte Giants shut out the Kiwoom Heroes 4-0 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul before 15,216 fans, just 784 short of a sellout.
The visiting LG Twins blanked the Kia Tigers 8-0 with 12,364 fans on hand at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, some 270 km south of Seoul. The KT Wiz edged out the NC Dinos 5-4 at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, about 300 km southeast of Seoul, with 5,157 fans in the stands.
The Lions are tops with an average of 22,806 fans per game, with three other clubs -- the Twins, the Giants, and the Bears -- also averaging over 20,000 fans at home.