MCG’s Boxing Day Test breaks attendance record for cricket crowd in Australia

The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) has advised that a record crowd total of more than 370,000 has attend the five days of the Boxing Day Test at MCG, setting a new Australian attendance record for Test Cricket.

Today has seen 74,362 spectators pass through the turnstiles for the final day’s play, taking the total attendance for the Test between Australia and India to 373,691 - surpassing the 350,534 who attended Australia v England in 1936/37, which was contested over six-days.

The record was officially broken just after midday, when 51,371 spectators were in attendance - with the official day five attendance announced just before 5pm.

Yesterday’s attendance of 43,867 had already set a new benchmark for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG (299,329) - beating the 271,855 who watched the Ashes contest between Australia and England in 2013.

However, Boxing Day saw a lower-than-expected turnout of 87,242 spectators. Despite, every ticket having been sold, temperatures close to 40 degrees celsius kept thousands of purchasers away.

Commenting on the crowd numbers, Joel Morrison, Cricket Australia’s General Manager for Events and Operations, said officials had been “blown away” by support of fans during the match, noting “the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is a blockbuster event, and it has been fantastic to see such strong attendances right across the summer.”

MCC Chief Executive, Stuart Fox, said his organisation was proud of the record, commenting “we could sense we were going to reach this significant attendance milestone - crowd figures we would have previously only associated with an Ashes series.

“Breaking the all-time MCG Test match attendance is even more remarkable when you consider the 1936-37 (match) was played over six days, when the stadium had a capacity of about 88,000.”

A large proportion of the attendance in Melbourne this year has been Indian supporters about whom Morrison stated “(this) demonstrates the power of cricket to bring communities together.”

Australia won the fourth Test of the series, beating India by 184 runs to take a 2-1 lead ahead of the Fifth Test at the SCG commencing on Friday.

The Boxing Day Test attendance takes the total attendance for sporting events at the MCG for 2024 to 3,734,266, at an average of 56,580 across 66 event days.

2024/25 Boxing Day Test Attendance

Day 1 - 87,242
Day 2 - 85,147
Day 3 - 83,073
Day 4 - 43,867
Day 5 - 74,362
TOTAL - 373,691

Images: The MCG on day 4 (top) and day 1 (below) of the Boxing Day Test. Credit: MCG.