IAAF Worlds London 2017 had 600,000 paid fans how did United States 2022 do?

Being hosted in a capital city with ample transport links makes a difference.

If I hear Eugene referred to as as "Track Town" one more time ...

The TV coverage included a bunch of ads for Oregon tourism, touting their rocks and trees. Combined with the tree themed medals, it was just a coordinated marketing grift from Oregon. It could have been a skit from Portlandia.

Track and Field at Tokyo 2021 Olympics had no fans in the stands yet they had 1,000 times the TV audience as London 2017.

Eugene announced there were 130,862 fans for the first 9 days, including both the morning and evening sessions. So after ten days it was probably around 150,000.

Not even close close to the 600,000 fans that London had. I was at the 2017 London WC. That place was packed. Awesome track atmosphere. Way better than Eugene. And yes, I live in the US.

At least Eugene was better than 2019 Doha, but that's not saying much.

Tickets for Eugene were controlled by scalpers and were crazy priced, until the events started. Then the market collapsed but it was too late for people to come to Eugene.

If tix were available at say $100 or even $150 attendance would have been much higher.

True, so why choose somewhere with bad transport links?