Austadiums went from strength to strength in 2023 with another significant boost in traffic and a suite of new features and improvements. Here’s the annual look at the ‘year that was’.
Traffic on the Austadiums website continues to grow. 2023 saw visits increase by 54% and pageviews by 40%. Over the past three years, there has been a quantum leap in traffic, increasing by an average of 71% per year.
A significant number of new features were introduced to the site, while many others were enhanced. A new navigation menu was introduced for mobile devices, making it easier to find what you’re looking for, while there were also plenty of improvements made ‘under the hood’ to boost the platform.
Some of our favourite new features and improvements implemented during 2023 included:
Stadium Concerts fully launched, listing all major stadium concerts held in Australia, along with full tour schedules, tickets including on-sale times, seating maps and attendance figures, when available.
Crowd Pages were enhanced, making available even more of the extensive Austadiums Sport database than ever before. Including for sports and comps, displaying crowd summaries for each stadium in a sortable table and yearly summaries. Stadium crowds can also now be viewed per year.
Trending Stadiums shows which stadiums are trending right now on the Austadiums website, often correlating with major events or tickets going on sale, constantly updated live.
Stadium Improvements included the new stadium photos page, displaying the latest photos added to the site and larger viewing, the ability to filter stadiums for a sport by location, and multiple seating maps for stadiums.
There are already a number of exciting enhancements planned for 2024.
Austadiums houses the most comprehensive sports events database and in 2023, there were 1,698 events listed across 16 sports. 1,283 of these had a crowd figure listed – equating to more than 21.5 million spectators, at an average of 12,676 per event.
The ‘Top 5s’ in the ‘Year That Was’ series generated high engagement across Austadiums’ social media channels, particularly Twitter/X. Below are some of the highlights from the year, while you can see them all here.
MOST VIEWED STADIUMS
The most viewed stadium on Austadiums in 2023 was Accor Stadium, followed by the MCG, with Taylor Swift’s upcoming Australian concerts having a big say on the top two. Winner of the 2023 Stadium Awards, Optus Stadium, sits third after being the most viewed in 2018-2021.
HIGHEST ATTENDED STADIUMS
Something that remains unchanged is Australia’s largest stadium attracting the most spectators through the gates. In 2023, almost 3.7 million fans attended sports events at the MCG at an average of more than 57,000. Marvel, Optus and Adelaide Oval retained the same positions they held in 2022, with Suncorp Stadium replacing the SCG in fifth.
HIGHEST ATTENDED CITIES
| City | Total | Average | |
| 1 | Melbourne | 8,111,829 | 24,959 |
| 2 | Sydney | 3,978,901 | 15,363 |
| 3 | Brisbane | 2,093,736 | 18,206 |
| 4 | Perth | 1,931,486 | 18,395 |
| 5 | Adelaide | 1,744,464 | 16,614 |
Melbourne was again a clear leader in the total and average attendance throughout 2023, attracting more than 8.1 million spectators to sports events – double that of Sydney and more than the combined attendances of Sydney (2nd), Brisbane (3rd) and Perth (4th). 2023 saw Brisbane overtake Perth in third position on the list.
HIGHEST ATTENDED SPORTS COMPS
| Competition | Total | Average | % of Cap. | |
| 1 | AFL | 8,076,630 | 37,741 | 66.6 |
| 2 | NRL | 4,086,606 | 19,742 | 67.3 |
| 3 | FIFA WWC | 1,978,274 | 30,911 | 75.8 |
| 4 | A-League | 1,353,468 | 8,056 | 35.9 |
| 5 | BBL | 1,051,627 | 18,450 | 45.3 |
The AFL again dominated the sporting landscape with more than 8 million spectators attending matches during the 2023 season, about double that of the NRL. The NBL filled its stadiums better than any other competition, with 77.9% of venues filled at an average crowd of 6,945 for the calendar year. The FIFA Women’s World Cup boosted football attendances in 2023, with just shy of 2 million spectators at an average of almost 31,000 per game.
The Stadium Awards were again held with the 2023 edition attracting 79% more votes than the previous year. It was again Optus Stadium claiming the top prize, with Western Australian venues dominating the fan vote.
Optus Stadium, which celebrates its sixth birthday milestone this month, has been voted Best Stadium every year the Awards have been held since 2019. The MCG won the inaugural vote in 2018 and was runner-up this year with 15% of votes, while Suncorp Stadium was third with 14%.
That’s a wrap for 2023, in what was a big year and there’s so much more to look forward to in 2024 on Austadiums.