NBA breaks attendance record for 4th straight season

The NBA announced Thursday that the league set an attendance record for the fourth straight season, topping 22 million fans for the first time.

More than 22.1 million fans attended NBA games during the 2017-18 regular season, beating out the 21.9 million attendance figure from the 2016-17 season.

The NBA also said the league set a new regular-season record for average attendance at 17,987 per game, improving from the previous high set last season at 17,884.

Also broken was the NBA’s sellout record, with 741 games being sold out this season. The previous mark of 723 games was set during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.

With the NBA playoffs starting Saturday, the league also announced it had set records for online merchandise sales and social media followers. Sales at NBAStore.com climbed 25 percent this past season and the league added 8.7 million new social media followers for a 9 percent increase.