The Cincinnati Reds’ 2026 season left them with another ugly number attached to it: attendance.
For the first time since 2022, Cincinnati failed to clear 2 million fans at Great American Ball Park. Over 81 home games, the Reds drew 1,991,703, an average of 24,589 per game. That total was down 179,260 from 2025, when the club drew 2,170,963 and averaged 26,802 per game.
That slide pushed the Reds to 21st in MLB attendance, one spot below where they finished in 2025. It also marked a sharp drop from a year ago, when they had reached their highest attendance total in a decade.
The timing makes the decline sting even more. After a winning 2025, Cincinnati entered 2026 with momentum, and through the first 50 home games the club was averaging 25,421 fans per game, an increase of 706 over the same point in 2025.
The Reds also opened 20-11, and for a while the season looked like it might stay on track. Instead, the momentum faded, and so did the crowd.
The contrast with 2022 is hard to miss. That season remains the franchise’s low point in recent memory, when the Reds traded away Eugenio Suarez, Jesse Winker, Amir Garrett, Sonny Gray, and Luis Castillo. Fans knew the season was going nowhere, and attendance sank to 1,395,770.
This time, the disappointment came after a year when the Reds should have been positioned to build on stronger support. Small-market teams lean heavily on gate receipts, concessions, and attendance revenue, which makes the gate especially important for a club like Cincinnati. That matters even more for a franchise with a limited payroll, where every dollar can affect free-agent decisions and whether the team can hold onto players it has developed.
The Reds also had MLB’s fourth-largest decline in average attendance from 2025 to 2026. Only the Mets, Astros, and Royals saw bigger drops, even as leaguewide attendance rose by an average of 233 fans per game.
With the impending lockout coming in 2027, the Reds may not get another shot at the 2 million mark until 2028.
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