How successful were the Negro Leagues? Hover over to examine fan attendance at the games.

The Negro Leagues were a successful black enterprise that prospered, especially in its second iteration from 1933-1948. Fans attended in droves to watch their favorite players compete in thrilling games.
Regular season games had steady attendance, especially after WWII. Exhibition matches, including barnstorming, were also very popular even pre-war. All-star games, while the least frequent, had the highest attendance.
However, the consequence of integration was that the Negro Leagues could no longer co-exist alongside the newly integrated MLB. As players left, so did fans, ultimately depriving teams of the needed revenue to continue.

Negro league stats were often incomplete. The economics required for consistently accurate record keeping was simply not available to the leagues then. Retrosheet is the first game-level Negro League data that compiled information from newspapers. Their aim is to provide the best estimate of what happened because there is much uncertainty with the data.
Chart: The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at 20 Sunset Rd., Newark, DE 19711.Source: RetrosheetCreated with Datawrapper