WRESTLEMANIA
What are the most attended WrestleMania events in history?
WrestleMania celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend with WrestleMania XL set to take place as a two-night event at Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia).
For four decades now WrestleMania has delivered joy to countless generations of WWE fans and is one of the biggest wrestling promotions in the world generating a multi-million dollar business and creating a legion of household names in the stars that have graced the ring from Hulk Hogan, John Cena to the likes of Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.
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.
Top 10: most valuable event franchises in the world
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
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.
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 on just one single nighy. 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 was a two night event (as will be Wrestlemania XL) and drew a combined audience of 134,856 spectators with 67,303 turning up at SoFi Stadium for the first night with night two drawing 67,553 WWE fans.