Major League Baseball’s 2023 attendance resurgence beat even the most optimistic internal projections.

After predicting a full-season lift of 6% to 8% in June, the league ended the regular season with a total attendance of 70.75 million, a 9.6% increase. The total is the MLB’s largest since 2017 and the first above 70 million since that same year.

Aside from COVID-impacted seasons, the 2023 figure is also the greatest year-over-year increase at the gate since 1993, when MLB expanded from 26 to 28 teams.