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Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Which MLB Fanbases Are The Most Loyal?
It’s been 17 years since a team from the Keystone State last won a World Series, but that hasn’t stopped fans of the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates from wholeheartedly embracing Pennsylvania’s two MLB franchises, with each scoring well in a 2025 survey of league supporters ahead of the MLB season.
For Philly, the returns were especially impressive, with the NL East franchise ranking third out of 30 MLB teams when it came to fanbase loyalty with a total score of 12.56 points, ranking behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, while the Pirates finished 15th, with a total score of 53.44 points.
As for the teams themselves on the diamond this season across Pennsylvania sports betting, it's been two different stories.
As the 2025 MLB season enters the stretch run, PennStakes.com updated our piece around which MLB teams have the strongest, most loyal fans. (We factored in average stadium attendance, number of followers on X, attendance at away games and record over the seasons from 2022-2024.)
Now, which of the most loyal fanbases could be destined to meet in October?
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Most Loyal MLB Fans
Rank | Team | Score |
1 | Los Angeles Dodgers | 4.64 |
2 | New York Yankees | 5.67 |
3 | Philadelphia Phillies | 12.56 |
4 | Chicago Cubs | 13.49 |
5 | Atlanta Braves | 21.60 |
6 | San Francisco Giants | 23.49 |
T-7 | Texas Rangers | 33.49 |
T-7 | Boston Red Sox | 33.49 |
9 | Toronto Blue Jays | 33.52 |
10 | St. Louis Cardinals | 34.51 |
11 | San Diego Padres | 35.54 |
12 | Houston Astros | 38.59 |
13 | New York Mets | 41.55 |
14 | Cincinnati Reds | 52.45 |
15 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 53.44 |
16 | Arizona Diamondbacks | 54.51 |
17 | Baltimore Orioles | 54.57 |
18 | Los Angeles Angels | 56.43 |
19 | Detroit Tigers | 59.47 |
20 | Milwaukee Brewers | 59.56 |
21 | Cleveland Guardians | 61.54 |
22 | Colorado Rockies | 62.39 |
23 | Seattle Mariners | 64.54 |
24 | Chicago White Sox | 66.38 |
25 | Washington Nationals | 67.41 |
26 | Tampa Bay Rays | 67.55 |
27 | Kansas City Royals | 70.43 |
28 | Oakland Athletics | 71.37 |
29 | Minnesota Twins | 75.51 |
30 | Miami Marlins | 77.44 |
*research conducted before the 2025 MLB season
Where Pennsylvania’s Two MLB Clubs Rank
Of the two teams that call Pennsylvania home, Philadelphia scored much better across our metrics, speaking to the immense loyalty that sports fans in the City of Brotherly Love have for the Senior Circuit club, while Pirates fans finished in the middle of the pack, loyalty-wise.
For the Pirates, it’s understandable that fans would be a bit wary of throwing themselves behind the club too much given the fact that the Pirates haven’t won the NL Central since joining the division, with Pittsburgh’s last divisional crown coming as a member of the old NL East in 1992.
Over in Philly, the results have been more promising in the regular season, with the Phillies winning four NL East division titles since the franchise’s last World Series championship in 2008, though the longstanding National League club has yet to hoist the Commissioner's Trophy in two trips to the championship series in that span (2009 and 2022).
Regardless, it’s safe to say that Phillies fans are among the most passionate of any fanbase in the Majors, while baseball patrons in the state’s western flank are a bit more reserved, thanks to the Pirates longstanding struggle for relevancy in the sports hotbed of Pittsburgh.
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Could Phillies Meet Up With Fan Loyalty Rivals in MLB Playoffs?
When it comes to potential postseason matchups to keep an eye on, it’s hard not to get excited about the thought of the first-place Phillies squaring off against the MLB’s most loyal fanbase, that being the 66-49 Los Angeles Dodgers, who are currently two games ahead of the San Diego Padres in the NL West.
There’s also a shot that the Phillies could meet up with the team that knocked them out of the World Series in 2009, with the New York Yankees and their No. 2 ranked fanbase (loyalty wise) currently clinging to the third and final Wild Card spot in the American League.
While Philly currently holds a 97.7% chance of making the postseason, per the team at FanGraphs.com, things aren’t so rosy for the club immediately ahead of them in the loyalty standings, as ‘The Bronx Bombers’ have a 69.5% shot at making the postseason and 14.1% odds of winning the AL East, according to the site.
The team ranked directly behind Philly (the Chicago Cubs) also hold solid postseason odds, with the South Siders holding a 64.6% shot at making the playoffs in 2025, potentially paving the way for the Phillies and Cubs to meet up in either the Wild Card round or Divisional Series in 2025.
Of the other teams currently leading their respective divisions at the moment, the Toronto Blue Jays (9th leaguewide), Houston Astros (12th), Detroit Tigers (19th) and Milwaukee Brewers (20th) can only look at Philly and envy the team’s citywide support base, with the Phillies rocking legions of supporters from across the Keystone State as the club looks to capture the NL East for a second straight season.
For now, what we know is that oddsmakers from DraftKings PA give the Phillies +650 odds of winning the franchise’s third World Series in 2025, ranking second MLB-wide behind the Dodgers (+300), while the club holds -195 odds of capturing the NL East once again this fall, rewarding the loyalty of millions of baseball fans in the Keystone State along the way.
USA Today photo by Kyle Ross.
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