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Facts About Home Team Advantage

Dan Holmes by Dan Holmes, July 25, 2025

Facts about home team advantage

The home field advantage is real in every team sport. The biggest home-field advantage is found in professional basketball. My research found three reasons home teams win slightly more than their opponents.

Home Field Advantage Meaning

Home team advantage is one of the most consistent trends in sports, but it plays out differently depending on the league. The home field advantage meaning refers to the benefit a team gets from playing in its own stadium. But how strong is this effect?

According to home-field advantage statistics, the impact varies. In the NBA and WNBA, home teams win more than in other pro sports. In MLB and NHL, that number is very consistent year after year.

When looking at home field advantage by sport, no league sees a greater playoff edge than the NFL. Is home field advantage real in football? Absolutely. Road wins in the NFL postseason are rare, which makes playoff seeding crucial.

That’s why the Super Bowl being held on a neutral site is fair: neither team benefits from a home crowd or stadium familiarity. It’s a level playing field when the stakes are highest. That makes your Super Bowl party more thrilling, right?

For fans who like to bet on the NFL online, factoring in home-field trends is essential. That’s especially true in January. Just remember: home doesn’t guarantee a win, but history shows it helps.

Home-Field Advantage Statistics: Why Home Teams Win More Often

There are several theories on why the home team holds an edge, including: home comforts like sleeping in their own beds; familiarity with the home field; the boost from home crowd enthusiasm, referee or officiating bias, an edge from not having to travel, and in baseball the advantage of batting last.

Home Field Facts in Five Major Sports

This data is gathered from regular season games dating back to 2018, and either through the 2023 or 2024 completed season, unless indicated. Source is StatsMuse.

  • NBA: 61.8% home court advantage for home teams (2018-19 through 2022-23 seasons)
  • NFL: 56.7% home field advantage for NFl teams for the 2018 to 2023 regular seasons
  • NHL: 56.7% of home teams won regular seasons games (2018-19 to 2022-23)
  • MLB: 53.5% home field advantage from 2018 through 2024
  • WNBA: 60.5% home field advantage from 2018-19 to 2023-24 WNBA seasons

Analysis of Home field Advantage in Professional Sports

  • NBA & WNBA: Strongest home‑court is found in professional basketball (~60–62% in NBA; ~60% in WNBA)
  • NFL & NHL: Moderate advantage (~55–59%) in most seasons
  • MLB: Smallest advantage in team sports (~52–54%), modest but consistent

Home Field and the Postseason

A few notes on home field and how it impacts the postseason in specific sports leagues:

  • Home teams were 10-2 in the 2024 NFL Playoffs
  • In the 2023 NFL Playoffs, home teams were 9-3
  • MLB teams were 36-48 (.429) in the postseason in 2023 and 2024 combined. The records for home teams in the MLB Playoffs and World Series was 15-26 in 2023, and 21-22 in 2024
  • NBA home teams won 60.2% of their games in the 2023 NBA Playoffs and NBA Finals. That record aligns almost exactly with the historical regular season mark.
  • In the 2023 NHL postseason, home teams were 35-41. In the first round, road teams won at a 62% clip, a record.
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