Charles Randall in HeyFonte posted this sweet spreadsheet with the Masters division attendance for US/Canada Regionals since the 2011-12 season. Red boxes show where attendance decreased from the previous year, while green boxes show where attendance increased from the previous year.
(Two mistakes: For this season's Fort Wayne and Hartford tournaments, he accidentally put the total attendance, not Masters attendance. The correct numbers are 816 and 751, respectively -- still significant increases from the last season.)
I figured I'd post this here on PokéStats just for easier access and to reach a potentially wider audience, but I take zero credit for the idea or execution. I think it's very interesting to see just how much the game has grown recently. There was no New England Regional in 2016-17, but 2015-16's had roughly 200 Masters while this season's had roughly 900. At that Regional alone there was a 478% attendance increase over two seasons. Across the board, this game is picking up new players left and right and more players are attending these larger events. Whether this is due to the lower Worlds invite requirement, or (as Eric Gansman pointed out on the Facebook post) higher admission fees leading to better prizing at events, could be a matter of debate, but it's clear we're in a time of unprecedented growth in this game (and I'm happy to be contributing to it however I can with the resources on this site!)
I figured I'd post this here on PokéStats just for easier access and to reach a potentially wider audience, but I take zero credit for the idea or execution. I think it's very interesting to see just how much the game has grown recently. There was no New England Regional in 2016-17, but 2015-16's had roughly 200 Masters while this season's had roughly 900. At that Regional alone there was a 478% attendance increase over two seasons. Across the board, this game is picking up new players left and right and more players are attending these larger events. Whether this is due to the lower Worlds invite requirement, or (as Eric Gansman pointed out on the Facebook post) higher admission fees leading to better prizing at events, could be a matter of debate, but it's clear we're in a time of unprecedented growth in this game (and I'm happy to be contributing to it however I can with the resources on this site!)
