Ohio State’s undefeated regular-season run last year started with a Week 1 victory over non-conference Texas. The Buckeyes burst the hype of the preseason No. 1 Longhorns and simply sailed through the rest of the campaign. However, that domination affected the program when it came to filling the stands. It wasn’t that big a deal against the likes of Texas and Penn State, but against lesser opponents, it led to depleted numbers.

The Buckeyes were at home in Columbus seven times last season. According to a report by Joey Kaufman of the Columbus Dispatch, while “announced” attendance remained high, averaging over 100,000, the number of scanned tickets was around 85% of that average. That discrepancy over the season led to the program losing revenue.

Big crowds help the Buckeyes in two major ways: a better home-field advantage and more money to support the program. This gap between scanned tickets and announced attendance means a huge impact on revenue as people spend on parking, food, and merchandise, which increases revenue for the athletic department.

The quality of their opponents determined the program’s ability to fill the Horseshoe (capacity: 102,780), with games against smaller schools like Grambling State and Rutgers drawing lower actual attendance than marquee matchups. The game against Rutgers saw 100,023 announced fans. However, the scanned tickets for that game were 75,746.

Then, the game against Grambling State saw 81,165 scanned tickets, while announced attendance was 100,624. Even the UCLA matchup only drew 89,249 fans to the stadium. The in-state matchup against Ohio was still better in that regard, with 93,731 fans turning up to see the Buckeyes dismantle the Bobcats. The 2025 season also marked a high in the gap between the games with the highest and lowest attendance, as measured by scanned tickets.

The Texas game drew 95,995 ticketed fans to Horseshoe. Compared to the Rutgers game, the gap between the most and least attended games was around 20,000. In 2024, this stood at 13,041 due to a strong home schedule and the national championship run. Then, in 2023, it was 10,518, and in 2022, it was 19,843.

These numbers come after the program noted a significant jump in ticket sales after the 2024 season. For the FY 2025 (including the 2024 season), ticket revenue reached $81.7 million, a significant jump from $58.8 million in FY 2024. The OSU athletic department reported a school-record $336.1 million in total operating revenue. The numbers for the last campaign are yet to be out, but we may not see a similar jump.

Ohio State saw an uneven reality in 2021

In 2021 against Tulsa, while the announced figure was over 76,000, approximately 20,000 ticket holders did not attend, making it the lowest actual turnout since 1971 for Ohio State. This was attributed to a combination of a prior “humiliating” loss to Oregon and technical friction at the gates. Then, the shift to digital-only tickets caused massive delays, leading many fans to miss kickoff or give up on entering entirely, which depressed scan numbers.

Historically, Ohio State maintains a “no-show” rate in the range of 10–15%, which is relatively low compared to a national average of nearly 30% at other FBS programs.

In the upcoming season, Ohio State will play seven home games, with five B1G conference home games, headlined by the return of “The Game” against Michigan and Oregon’s first trip to Columbus as a conference member. Now, in 2026, the gap between announced attendance and scanned tickets will depend on how the season unfolds.