For the 2016 MLS regular season, the average attendance was 21,690, which is an 0.66% increase compared to last season.

The 21,690 number is the third year in a row that Major League Soccer has broken its own attendance record. And it means that the league now has a greater average attendance than Argentina’s Primera Division, France’s Ligue Un and the Netherlands’ Eredivisie.

Nine of the clubs reported decreases, with Kansas City and Salt Lake at less than 2%. Seattle dropped a little, which is not surprising given that for most of the season they played mediocre soccer and weren’t a playoff team until the end. New York City FC and Orlando City SC suffered decreases in their attendances, which is not unusual for the second year of expansion teams.

However, Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas suffered the largest decreases. Houston can blame terrible performances all year for their drop, but Dallas is, well, Dallas. You can’t blame the average attendance decrease at Dallas on the reduced capacity at the stadium. After all, the club didn’t hit the 2016 capacity of their stadium in 2015, so the disappointing attendances wasn’t for lack of available seats.

The 0.66% increase in average attendance is unsurprising. That’s not an indictment of the league, but rather it’s the reality that many of the clubs are reporting a high percentage of capacities at their various venues. The one true outlier is FC Dallas, which reduced the capacity at Toyota Stadium from 20,500 to 16,500 to accommodate the new Hall of Fame being built at one end of the park.

Looking ahead to next season, we can expect a larger attendance increase with Atlanta United and Minnesota United joining the league with above average capacity facilities.

Here are the attendance numbers for the 2016 MLS regular season:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
2015 2016
Att Cap Att Att +/- GP % of Cap Cap
Seattle 44,247 38,500 42,636 -3.64% 17 90.02% 44,075
Orlando 32,847 46,174 31,324 -4.64% 17 95.54% 32,785
NYCFC 29,016 35,514 27,196 -6.27% 17 71.13% 38,237
Toronto 23,439 30,991 26,583 13.41% 17 87.95% 30,226
LA Galaxy 23,392 27,000 25,147 7.50% 17 97.97% 25,667
Vancouver 20,507 21,000 22,330 8.89% 17 100.95% 22,120
Portland 21,144 20,674 21,144 0.00% 17 100.00% 21,144
Montréal 17,750 27,340 20,669 16.45% 17 90.50% 21,883
Red Bulls 19,657 25,189 20,620 4.90% 17 81.86% 25,189
NE Revs 19,627 22,500 20,185 2.85% 17 62.53% 32,280
San Jose 20,979 18,000 19,930 -5.00% 17 95.17% 20,941
Salt Lake 20,160 20,138 19,759 -1.99% 17 98.12% 20,138
Sporting KC 19,687 18,467 19,597 -0.46% 17 106.12% 18,467
Houston 20,658 22,039 19,021 -7.92% 17 86.31% 22,039
Philadelphia 17,451 18,500 17,519 0.39% 17 94.70% 18,500
Columbus 16,513 20,145 17,125 3.71% 17 85.76% 19,968
D.C. United 16,244 19,647 17,081 5.15% 17 79.78% 21,412
Colorado 15,657 17,424 16,278 3.96% 17 93.42% 17,424
Chicago 16,003 20,000 15,602 -2.50% 17 78.01% 20,000
FC Dallas 16,013 20,500 14,094 -11.98% 17 85.42% 16,500

HT Overlapping Run