Australian Open achieves largest ever attendance

The 2025 Australian Open will go down as the biggest ever, drawing a record crowd of more than 1.2 million fans.

Surpassing the previous attendance record set just last year, daily attendance records continued to be broken throughout the tournament, culminating in last year’s overall record being exceeded on day 14 of the main draw.

Yesterday’s action saw Jannik Sinner of Italy beat German Alexander Zverev in the men’s final to win the Australian Open for the second year running while the United States’ Madison Keys prevailed against defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the women’s decider on Saturday.

Celebrating the completion of the tournament, Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Steve Dimopoulos stated “this year’s Australian Open has broken records with over a million tennis fans flocking to Melbourne Park to witness the world’s best tennis players, and many millions more watching at home as we showcase Victoria to the world.”

The huge influx of interstate and overseas visitors has been a boon for accommodation across Melbourne with STR confirming 93% of all hotel rooms were booked on Saturday 18th January, the midway point of the tournament.

The 2024 Australian Open generated more than $533 million in economic benefits for Victoria, with this year’s edition set to top that figure and add to the $3.14 billion the Open has generated for the state’s economy over the past decade.

However, the tournament has seen unfortunate examples of poor crowd behaviour.

This came to a head on Friday when Novak Djokovic was booed by the crowd after being forced to retire during his semi-final against Alexander Zverev.

Even after waving goodbye to Rod Laver Arena for potentially the final time, the 10-time champion was still booed by the crowd.

Nonetheless, Australian Open Tournament Director and Tennis Australia Chief Executive, Craig Tiley advised “our team is proud to have delivered another record-breaking Australian Open, with more than a million fans once again enjoying world-class tennis and the crowning of two exceptional champions.

“The AO continues to bring people together in a celebration of sport, food, family fun and entertainment.”

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