Cincinnati Bengals fans can’t catch a break.
First, our team has never won a Super Bowl — even after appearing at the Big Game three times — next we’re voted one of the most annoying fan bases, and now? A new survey is ranking Bengals fans as one of the least-committed fan bases in the NFL.
The average attendance of NFL games over the last few seasons has consistently been over 18 million, according to data from Statista. With that many fans, Canada Sports Betting (CSB) wanted to measure the most and least-committed fan bases among the NFL’s 32 teams to see who sticks with their team during the hard seasons.
Bengals fans were not one of those fan bases hanging on in the tough times, based on what CSB found. The survey determined Bengals fans are the fifth least-committed fan base in the NFL.
To figure out these rankings, CSB analyzed home game attendance of teams during their worst season since 2000, plus the season before that. The worst seasons were determined by looking at win-loss records, point differentials and other major context factors, like key injuries, scandals and rebuilding years.
The worst season for the Bengals was determined to be the 2002 season, when the Bengals had a win-loss record of 2-14. During the 2001 season, the Bengals saw an average of 61,767 fans at their home games. That dropped to 58,392 — a 5.46% decrease — in 2002.
The Detroit Lions have the least-committed fan base overall, followed by the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams. The top five most-committed fans are, in order, the Minnesota Vikings, Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders.
What we think the data fails to convey, however, is the long-suffering of Cincinnati sports fans. Maybe we’re just tired of having our hearts broken, okay? The Bengals made it to the Super Bowl three times in their franchise history — losing to the San Francisco 49ers twice, in 1982 and 1989, then the Los Angeles Rams in 2022. Not to mention, the Cincinnati Reds haven’t made it to the playoffs since 2020 and haven’t made a World Series appearance since 1990. We’re tired and NFL tickets are expensive.
We don’t think a low game-day attendance in 2002 makes us less committed. Bengals fans get knocked down a lot, but we return to the start of each season with a lot of enthusiasm and pride, not to mention hope that this year will finally be our year. We’re here for the long haul, even if that doesn’t translate into tangible data.
You can see the full fan base commitment rankings here.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 10, 2025.