The Washington Nationals passed a million in attendance this weekend and may surpass two and one-half million fans for the first time in franchise and Washington baseball history. They have already outdrawn their predecessors, the 2004 Expos, by over 250 thousand fans in almost 50 fewer games. They project to 2,571,601 fans for the season, almost 3.5 times as many as the Expos drew in Montreal and San Juan last year.

The 2005 Nats are also just the second Washington club to draw over one million fans. The other was the 1946 Senators with 1,027,216 in total attendance. They finished fourth that year.

Here are all the seasons in franchise history in which at least 1.5 million fans came out to see the Expos/Nats play, ranked by average per game:

This would be just the thirteenth year in franchise and Washington history (combined) that a club outdrew the major-league average. Here are the others:

It's particularly impressive given that 2004 Expos drew under ten thousand per game, a little over a quarter of the major-league average. The Expos over the last few years were used to playing in front of empty seats. Now, they are playing to packed houses. Here are the Washington/Expo teams that were the most below the major-league average:

That's an increase of 22,378.78 fans per game. The previous high in one-year turnaround in attendance in major-league history was almost three thousand fans less. That was 1953 Braves, in their first year in Milwaukee. Here are the biggest one-year increases:

Now, what'll happen if they stay in first all year?