MLS attendance records: List of top crowds in league history as Charlotte FC sets new mark

Expansion team Charlotte FC is only at the start of its Major League Soccer adventure, but the North Carolina club has already found a way into the record books.

Charlotte FC set a new MLS single-game attendance record in its home debut at Bank of American Stadium on March 5 with 74,479 on hand. The stadium, which also hosts NFL franchise Carolina Panthers, has a listed capacity 75,412.

But the club didn’t need a sellout to break the MLS record previously held by Atlanta United at 72,548. By March 3, it had already sold 73,500 tickets, which was short of maximum capacity, but enough to knock Atlanta off its perch. 

In an impressive show of local support for a first-year team, the team had already announced that it surpassed the 60,000-ticket mark a full 30 days before its first home game.

Charlotte FC set the record against an MLS original and the team that has won the most MLS Cups in the LA Galaxy (five league titles). The match also came a week before the team traveled to face the team that it unseated for the record crowd: its new regional rival Atlanta United.

MORE: Charlotte FC loses, but puts on a show in debut

Minted History ?

Your NEW @MLS Attendance Record! pic.twitter.com/8tgefRS9C2

— Charlotte FC (@CharlotteFC) March 6, 2022

MLS attendance records

Atlanta United, which plays at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, held every single MLS attendance record before Charlotte FC came around in 2022. The Five Stripes were an expansion team themselves in 2017.

Not only did Atlanta previously own all of the top 10 regular season attendances, with the top mark of 72,548, but Atlanta also registered the top MLS playoff attendance at 73,019 for the 2018 MLS Cup final against Portland.

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Atlanta United supporters apparently come out to support their team no matter the opponent, as the top six attendance marks all came against different opponents.

The Five Stripes and their faithful haven’t made a run at the top 10 since the 2020 home opener checked in at No. 10. The now No. 3-attended game took place in 2019 and the next seven attendance marks were registered before then.

If Charlotte FC were to officially sell out Bank of America Stadium against the LA Galaxy on March 5, it would shatter the old record by nearly 3,000 fans.

Highest USA soccer attendances

The top 10 largest soccer attendances in the United States in history have been split between two stadiums, purely based on their capacity: the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California, and Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The largest-ever recorded attendance for a soccer match in the United States was a friendly between Manchester United and Real Madrid in the run-up to the 2014-15 European soccer season, which entertained 109,318 fans.

In fact, the International Champions Cup (ICC) exhibition series of friendlies between high-profile European clubs produced three of the top four all-time soccer attendances in the United States, all coming at Michigan Stadium.

The largest crowd ever for a U.S. national team game unsurprisingly came on the world’s biggest stage at the 1994 World Cup. The United States played Romania, Colombia, and Switzerland in group stage play, all at the Rose Bowl, with two of those matches appearing on the Top 10 list.

The game against Romania was the highest-attended U.S. men’s national game in history with 93,869 on hand.

The U.S. women’s national team’s highest attendance also came at the Rose Bowl. the 1999 FIFA World Cup final against China officially registered at 90,185.