The yellow wall of Borussia Dortmund looks down on everyone in terms of stadium spectators for the 2023/24 season, propelling the Bundesliga to the top, while Serie A’s club continues to fill stadium, ranking just behind the Premier League and the same German league.
These are the attendance figures for the past season, according to data reworked by Calcio e Finanza based on reports and figures released by clubs and foreign leagues. The picture that emerges when considering the top 5 European leagues is the dominance by the English and German leagues, with Italy still outperforming the Spanish La Liga.
Stadium attendance 2023 2024, the leagues
In detail, the German Bundesliga leads in terms of average spectators, with 39,519 spectators per game during the 2023/24 season. The English Premier League follows closely with an average of 38,557 spectators per game. Serie A, for the first time since the 1997/98 season, exceeds 30,000 spectators per game, placing it ahead of the Spanish La Liga, which averages 29,017 fans per game. Lastly, the French Ligue 1, despite a significant leap forward, closed with an average of 27,113 spectators per game.
These are significant numbers for the French league, enough to surpass Italy in terms of average occupancy rate. According to this ranking, the Premier League tops the Bundesliga (97.6% versus 96.4%), but more importantly, Ligue 1 ranks third with a fill rate of 85.4% compared to Serie A’s 82.8% and La Liga’s 81.4%.
Comparing with the 2022/23 season, Ligue 1 and Serie A are the only leagues that saw growth in both indicators (respectively +14% and +5% for spectators and +9% and +2.5% for occupancy rate), while the other three leagues saw some numbers decline: the Bundesliga saw an 8% drop in average fans (but +4% in occupancy rate), La Liga recorded a -1.4% in spectators (also due to Barcelona playing at Montjuic instead of the larger Camp Nou due to renovation works), while the Premier League even saw a -4% in spectators and -1% in occupancy rate.
Stadium attendance 2023 2024, the clubs
Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are driving Bundesliga’s numbers: in the 2023/24 season they always filled their respective stadiums with an average of 81,305 and 75,000 spectators per each of the 34 matches of the season.
Third place goes to Manchester United, with 73,354 spectators per game, slightly more than Inter’s 72,838 spectators, which places it fourth ahead of Real Madrid (72,061 spectators) and Milan (72,008 spectators). Roma also makes the top 10 with 62,956 spectators per game, and expanding to the top 20, we find seven Premier League clubs, six Bundesliga clubs, three Serie A clubs, three La Liga clubs, and one Ligue 1 club.
Stadium attendance 2023 2024, occupancy rate
Looking at the average occupancy rate rankings, the Bundesliga also dominates here: five teams had a 100% occupancy rate, while another four had 99%. The top 20 occupancy rates also include nine Premier League teams (with West Ham registering an average of 99.9%), one Ligue 1 team (Lens with 99%), and one Serie A team, Cagliari, with an average occupancy rate of 98.5%.
As for Serie A alone, Cagliari holds the crown with a occupancy rate of 98.51% (despite an average attendance of just over 16,000 fans per game). Atalanta also performed well with 96.74% (influenced by stadium renovation works) and Inter, which ranks third in this ranking with a occupancy rate of 96.21%.
Outside the podium are (in this order) Genoa, Juventus, Milan, and Roma, all with a occupancy rate above 90%, a very high figure especially for those clubs – particularly the Rossoneri and Giallorossi – whose stadiums boast significant capacity. Genoa surpasses 96%, while Juventus and Milan stop at 95%, and Roma at 93%.