AFL records Australia’s largest sporting crowds in 2023

AFL was Australia’s most attended sport in 2023 with total stadium crowds of 8.1 million attending its Premiership fixture, almost double that of the NRL.

In a year of major events in which the FIFA Women's World Cup welcomed almost two million, Melbourne’s Formula 1 Grand Prix was the largest single event, drawing 131,124 people to its day four race at Melbourne's Albert Park.

This made the F1 race the highest-attended standalone sporting event in Australia since the 2006 Victoria Derby at Flemington Racecourse.

According to recent data published by Austadiums, crowds of 19.5 million attended the top five sports in Australia over 2023, with rugby league, football, cricket and basketball were all popular.

Beyond the 8,076,630 attending AFL, the NRL welcomed 4,086,606 fans during the year, football attracted 3,331,742 (1,978,274  for the FIFA Women's World Cup and 1,353,468 for A-League fixtures) while cricket was watched by 1.4 million fans during the year across all of its competitions (including 1,051,627 for the Big Bash League).

Basketball came next on the list with a total of 1.1 million fans.

Crowd Averages
The AFL averaged 37,700 spectators per game across the AFL and AFLW seasons, the NRL attracted average crowd numbers of 19,700 per game  and the BBL drew an average of 18,500 spectators per match.

An average of 30,900 people attended each FIFA Women's World Cup game, according to Austadiums, making it the third-most attended Australian sporting event in 2023.

Crowd Numbers
100,024 attended the AFL grand final between Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions while the highest recorded crowd for a rugby league game in 2023 was State of Origin game three, which drew a crowd of 75,342 at Accor Stadium in Sydney.

For the regular NRL home and away season however, the largest crowd was 51,047 at the Redcliffe Dolphins versus Brisbane Broncos game at Suncorp Stadium in the Queensland capital.

Stadium Performance
Among venues, the MCG attracted the largest overall crowd numbers for sporting events, 3,682,701 for the year as well as the largest single stadium numbers for the AFL grand final - the largest for an AFL grand final since 1971.

Melbourne's Marvel Stadium, Perth's Optus Stadium, the Adelaide Oval and Brisbane's Suncort Stadium each attracted more than a million sports fans during the year, while Tasmania's MyState Bank Arena and the Adelaide Oval both recorded 89% capacity across its events.

Main image: Collingwood fans at the 2023 AFL grand final.