What are the most attended WrestleMania events in history?
With WrestleMania 39 taking place this weekend in SoFi Stadium, we thought we would have a look at the success of the brand.
Over two nights, Saturday April 1st and Sunday April 2nd, SoFi Stadium will be rocked by the 39th edition of one of the most successful brands ever created: WrestleMania.
While the WWE has not been unscathed in recent years, particularly with the misconduct investigation into Vince McMahon and his voluntary retirement, and then return, to the business. But no matter what mud flies around wrestling, and there is a lot of it, none of it ever sticks to their flagship product, WrestleMania.
Since the first event back in 1985, WrestleMania was conceived of as a Pay Per View and boy has it succeeded in that area. Forbes currently ranks WrestleMania as the sixth-most valuable event franchise in the world. The list is worth reading in its entirety.
- Super Bowl, $780 million
- Summer Olympic Games, $375 million
- NCAA Men’s Final Four, $300 million
- FIFA World Cup, $282 million
- College Football Playoffs, $255 million
- WrestleMania, $245 million
- UEFA Champions League, $168 million
- Kentucky Derby, $155 million
- Winter Olympic Games, $150 million
- MLB World Series, $122 million
Read that again. It is astounding, when you think of it.
Worldwide, the revenue generated by WrestleMania is double the World Series, nearly that of the Winter Olympics and Kentucky Derby, and even tops the UEFA Champions League by nearly $80 million. That is unreal!
The most attended WrestleMania events ever
Of course, the list compiled by Forbes is looking solely at advertising revenue, not necessarily popularity or even viewing figures. But even by that standard, WrestleMania is a heavyweight.
The most attended event ever was WrestleMania 32 in Arlington, Texas, which drew 101,763 spectators. Just behind this is WrestleMania III in Pontiac, Michigan, which drew an unbelievable 93,173 spectators. For comparison, the city of Pontiac has a population of 61,606.
Rounding out the top five most-attended events were WrestleMania 35 in East Rutherford, New Jersey with a crowd of 82,265, WrestleMania 29 also in East Rutherford, New Jersey with a crowd of 80,676, and WrestleMania 23 in Detroit, Michigan with a crowd of 80,103.
WrestleMania 39 looks set to top everything so far, with over 90,000 tickets sold within 24 hours of going on sale last August. SoFi Stadium has a capacity of 100,240, so if they get even half full on both nights, they will set a new attendance record. We won’t have long to wait before we find out.