Sheffield Wednesday fans play their part in 50-year high attendance record

Just under 20 million fans watched games in the Championship, League One and League Two over the course of the 2022/23 campaign, and Wednesdayites contributed a fair chunk to that figure as they averaged over 25,000 per home game and sold out practically all of their away day allocations.

It meant that all of the top four divisions in England were in the 20 best-attended leagues across Europe for the season, showing the sheer support that the pyramid commands.

A statement from the league detailing the facts and figures read, “Over 21.7 million supporters passed through the turnstiles of an EFL competition in 2022-23, with the highest cumulative attendances recorded for league matches since 1953-54.

“Of that total, 19.8 million attended a fixture in the Sky Bet Championship, League One or League Two and the end of season EFL Play-Offs, ranking the season in the top 10 highest regular EFL season attendances of all time.

“All three divisions featured in the top 20 best attended Leagues across Europe in 2022-23, while a record 443,765 fans attended the 15 Sky Bet EFL Play-Offs, the most since the format was introduced in 1987.

“Over 10 million fans attended a match in the Sky Bet Championship, the first time that milestone has been broken since 2018-19 and only the 11th time that that has happened in tier two football, making the Championship the fifth best attended division in Europe behind only the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A.

“English football’s third tier, Sky Bet League One, also made the European top 10 with nearly six million supporters attending a match, while League Two was in 14th place with over three million supporters taking in a fixture in the fourth tier.”

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