January 27 – English Premier League crowds continue to leave little room for doubt about the league’s matchday pull, with matchweek 23 offering one of the clearest examples yet of how close to full capacity grounds are running.
Across the ten fixtures, clubs sold 381,748 tickets from a combined capacity of 387,207 – an average fill rate of 98.4%. In practical terms, that meant just 5,459 empty seats across the entire weekend, a marginal shortfall spread thinly across the division.
West Ham United led the way, filling 62,456 of 62,500 seats at the London Stadium. That impressive attendance was matched with a vital win for the Hammers, who put three past Sunderland as they try and chase their way out of the relegation zone.
As things stand, they sit five points away from safety, as Nottingham Forest also picked up a valuable win away at Brentford.
AFC Bournemouth were similarly tight to capacity, with only 47 unfilled seats at the significantly smaller Vitality Stadium, while Newcastle United (99.76%), Brentford (99.33%) and Arsenal (99.33%) all hovered just below the maximum.
Arsenal in particular have enjoyed a significant uplift in attendance since last season, though the near-full house wasn’t enough to push their side over the line against a new-look Manchester United team full of fight.
Fulham were the only club to dip meaningfully below the round’s average, filling 92.06% of Craven Cottage and leaving 2,350 seats unused – still a strong showing by international standards, but an outlier within this particular matchweek.
The wider seasonal picture is just as robust – after 23 rounds, Premier League clubs have filled 9.15 million seats from a total available capacity of 9.35 million. That equates to an average utilisation rate of 97.6%, with fewer than 200,000 seats unfilled across the campaign so far.
Only a handful of matchweeks have slipped below the 96.5% mark, with most clustered between 97% and 98.5%. Matchweek 23 sits comfortably among the strongest, alongside rounds 13, 18 and 19.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at [email protected]