The final official attendance number of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship lies much higher than the 600,000 originally targeted by the organizing committee. A total of 686,391 spectators came to watch the 64 games in Cologne's LANXESS arena and the AccorHotels Arena in Paris. This represents the second-best attendance ever in the history of IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, outnumbered only by the 2015 tournament in the great ice hockey nation of the Czech Republic.

The main venue Cologne registered 462,435 visitors. This represents an average of 13,601 spectators for each of the 34 games. The already high average of the 28 preliminary round games in Cologne (13,413) could thus even be increased in the final round. The games in Paris were visited by a total of 223,965 people, which represents an average of 7'465 spectators per each of the 30 games.

Ten games could be announced as completely "sold out". At 22 games, the arenas were filled to more than 75 per cent of their capacity. This is all the more remarkable as both venues together offered the largest ever capacity for two venues at IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships (Cologne 18,500, Paris 14,500).

On Saturday, 13 May 2017, 55,239 spectators saw the three games in Cologne. This has, apart from special events like the 2010 IIHF Worlds opening game at the Schalke football stadium, not been seen yet on one single game day at IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships in the modern times of organizing the event indoors only. Further to this, Cologne registered the most visited noon game in the modern history of the IIHF Worlds with 17,936 spectators at the game Latvia vs. USA.