UK ATTENDANCE REPORT
2023
Sport thrived in 2023, as UK attendances passed 80 million fans for the first time, despite a lack of major events in the calendar year. Meanwhile, 1.5 million ticket purchasers cheered on women’s football.
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In 2023, a total of 80.2m fans purchased tickets to watch professional sports in the UK, surpassing the previous record of 76.2m in 2022.
In 2021, total UK sports attendance1 hit 35.2m, with attendances between September and November reaching 20.2m; this is 2.0m more than the equivalent period in 2019 (the highest year on record for UK sports attendances).
2023 UK SPORTS ATTENDANCE
In 2023, total UK sports attendance continues to rise.
The year-on-year growth in 2023 is particularly significant given in 2022 the UK hosted major events including the Commonwealth Games, the UEFA Women’s EUROs and the Rugby League World Cup, which contributed 2.6m fans alone.
80.2M
Football
Football continues to contribute two-thirds of UK crowds, with the Premier League (15.8m) accounting for one in five of all UK sports attendances
55.5M
Horse Racing
4.8M
Racegoers cheered on horse racing in 2023
88.8k runners took to the track in 2023, in a year of record prize money contribution. Cheltenham and Ascot both saw single-day attendances of 68,000 in 2023.
Rugby union
Despite fewer UK-based international games in a Rugby World Cup year, average attendances rose in 2023, with three sell-out matches at Twickenham for the Men’s Six Nations, and nearly 60,000 watching England’s women take on France.
3.1M
Cricket
Cricket experienced its strongest year to date, with attendance surpassing the 3 million mark once again. This surge was primarily driven by a calendar that included two Ashes series and another record-breaking edition of The Hundred, with over 580,000 attending a match of short-form cricket competition in 2023.
Motorsport
480,000 tickets were sold for 2023’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with fans filling stands across all three days.
2.2M
WOMEN’S FOOTBALL RISING THROUGH THE RANKS
If we were to separate the attendances of women's football from men’s football, the former becomes the 7th most attended sport in the UK in its own right.
This rise was fuelled by increased attendances at all major women's football competitions, including the WSL, Women's FA Cup, Women's UEFA Champions League, FA Women's League Cup, Women's Championship, and International matches
Year-over-year attendance also grew, despite the record-breaking Women's UEFA European Championships taking place in the UK in the previous year.
MAJOR EVENT SCARCITY DOESN’T SCARE FANS
The absence of major events in 2023 did not stop total fan numbers continuing to rise.
However, 2022’s UK-hosted Commonwealth Games did mean attendance figures did decrease for sports such as athletics, netball, hockey and gymnastics, which all drew significant home crowds during the Commonwealth Games.
BIG ATTENDANCES, BIG GROWTH
Evidence of growth across the global sports industry is clear, with UK attendance growth mirroring successes across Europe - such as attendance growth in European leagues in women’s football – and in our own projections.
Sports’ Sprint to $260B explores how organisations across the sports industry – which currently boasts $159 billion in annual revenues generated by sports IP owners – can ride the wave over the coming decade.
During this growth period, sports fans are set to be the biggest winners, as successful organizations do more to know their fans best.
This growth and report analysis is evidenced by the billions of first party data records we process every year at Two Circles, the 400M sports fans we interact with every day, the 500 sports IP owners we support and the market intelligence we gather.
Find out more, and discover further insights at twocircles.com.
Only paid ticketed events for professional, competitive sports events held in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are considered.
Attendance figures used are those declared by the hosting rights-holder, where available, which include the number of tickets sold and other relevant attendees granted access to the venue
Women’s sports events total does not include mixed-gender events such as Wimbledon