Club World Cup group stage attendance better than all but 1 MLS club | OneFootball

For all those complaining about supposedly low attendance at the FIFA Club World Cup, those who watch Major League Soccer regularly should not be among them.

Through 48 group stage matches, the total attendance at the inaugural competition was 1,689,133 fans, for an average of 35,190 fans per match.

The individual match numbers have varied greatly of course, from the more than 80,000 who watched Paris Saint-Germain play Atletico Madrid, to the less than 4,000 on hand to see Mamelodi Sundowns against Ulsan HD.

But by any objective measure, the numbers are pretty strong with respect to the world of club soccer, including that of the host nation.

Out of 30 MLS clubs, only Atlanta United has drawn stronger average attendances this season than at the average Club World Cup group stage encounter, according to MLS data from Transfermarkt.

MLS top 5 average 2025 attendance

CWC group stage average: 35,190

And while MLS may lag behind other leagues across Europe and the Americas in terms of overall quality, its attendance numbers are pretty strong, consistently placing it in the top 10 worldwide.

Club World Cup attendance data also competes very well against global domestic league averages.

According to a January 2024 analysis from World Soccer Talk, only two leagues averaged more fans per game during the 2023-2024 season than the recently completed Club World Cup group stage: The German Bundesliga and the English Premier League, who both averaged slightly above 40,000 fans per game.

No other league on earth averaged even 30,000 fans per match.

If the CWC attendance data points out any flaw, it may be in FIFA's planning, which centered on hosting matches mostly at cavernous NFL and College Football stadiums rather than smaller soccer-specific facilities.

In particular, soccer-specific venues that are homes of clubs like San Diego FC, the LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls all went unused, and all have capacities between 25,000 and 35,000. They would've been perfect for this event.