But also when you look at the away results, we were way below Sheff Utd and Forest, which just goes to show that they might have bigger home crowds but they can't compare with us for backing the team on the road.
These things are cyclical.
We have a higher average home attendance across history than either Sheffield Utd or Nottingham Forest.
Their home attendances are indeed higher this season than ours.
However back in 1997-98 when Forest won the league and we were second they averaged 20,543 and Sheff Utd 17,939. We averaged 29,997, so more than Manchester City that season.
The next season in the Prem we averaged 34,389, so 10k more than Forest.
In the next 10 seasons to 2008-09, only once did Sheff Utd beat our average attendance. Forest got nowhere near.
In the next 6 seasons Forest bettered us every year, until our promotion season in 2015-16, where we averaged 24,627, Forest just 19,676. Sheff U averaged 19,803.
In truth there is little between us when like for like; we are very similar.
Factors that cause fluctuations are The league we are in, the position in the league, the size of stadium. We got much bigger crowds than those two for a decade because we were in the top league filling a stadium bigger than theirs.
But there is the pricing policy too.
It is a simple fact that both Sheff U and Forest prices are lower than ours.
I'd also wager that perhaps a thousand more away fans on average attend these grounds versus the Riverside.
It doesn't matter much either way, but there is no way that Boro typically get smaller crowds.
We have similar away support, but ours is travelling much much further.
Don't let us have any insecurities. Sheffield and Nottingham may both bigger places, but Sheffield has two big clubs and is surrounded by other clubs. Forest also has close competition.
Boro have good base support and a pretty big stretch potential with success. Bigger I'd say than either Forest or Sheff U.