The following is alist of professional wrestling attendance records. The highest number of events on the list have been promoted byNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), the largestprofessional wrestling promotion inJapan.
NJPW'sCollision in Korea, a two-day interpromotional supercard co-hosted withWorld Championship Wrestling, was the first-ever pro wrestling event held inNorth Korea and remains the most attended live event of all-time. The event reportedly had a combined crowd of 320,000, with 150,000 and 190,000 attending the first and second nights respectively.[1]Dave Meltzer of theWrestling Observer Newsletter stated actual attendances were about 150,000 and 165,000.[2][3] Regardless, the second night of Collision in Korea remains the most attended overall live event of all-time. It is generally accepted that many attendees at Collision in Korea attended for free.[2]
Many professional wrestling events are marketed with an inflated attendance figure "for entertainment purposes".[4] Some events below are excluded as their attendances have not been credibly verified – for example,India andPakistan allegedly hosted numerous wrestling shows pre-1970 which had attendances of over 40,000,[5][6] peaking in 1945 with theEmile Czaja vs.Hamida Pahalwan event at 200,000;[7] the existence of these events, however, have not been verified.
Note: Minimum attendance of 40,000.
General
Specific
The all-time pro wrestling attendance record would be for shows on April 28 and April 29, 1995 at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. The announced crowds for those shows were 165,000 and 190,000, although the real numbers were about 150,000 and 165,000. The first show was headlined by Scott Norton vs. Shinya Hashimoto and the second by Antonio Inoki vs. Ric Flair. While there were tickets sold, most of the people attending got in free, and were pretty much ordered to attend, so it's not really a fair comparison.
The attendance as would be normally announced for an event was 93,730 people, breaking the WWE's all-time total attendance (paid plus comps) record of 79,127 set at the 1992 SummerSlam show at Wembley Stadium, which barely beat out the 1987 WrestleMania III show which did more than 78,000. The actual number in the building was 97,769. ... the company had pushed the idea from the start of drawing 100,000 people (pretty much insuring [sic] they would have to announce a number over that or it would be a disappointment to the fans) ... The WWE announced the number at 101,763, which is the mythical number "for entertainment purposes" as Vince McMahon told me about the difference between real numbers and announced numbers years ago.
Tony [Khan] said the number in the building was 90,000. The key with the 90,000 is that that does include people that normally would not be counted in attendance, which would be like the staff and things like that. But there were several thousand at comps. So, you know, we're talking about [84,000, 85,000 total fans in attendance]. . . . I don't want to say close to 90,000, but it was probably 85 or 84 or somewhere in that range as far as number of [fans]. . . . So the old record, 79,800, 80,709 total [fans] inside the building [at Wrestlemania 32], they broke both those, actually.
....the WWE's all-time total attendance (paid plus comps) record of 79,127 set at the 1992 SummerSlam show at Wembley Stadium, which barely beat out the 1987 WrestleMania III show which did more than 78,000....
The paid the previous time they were in MetLife Stadium was 68,900 paid and a real number of 74,300 in the building, which was announced at 80,676.
Several of the groups this past week have run free shows as part of fireworks festivals or country fair type of events. The biggest was Tokyo Pro's show on 7/23 at Atami Sun Beach which was reported as being viewed by more than 65,000 fans.
Based on information released, the actual attendance for WrestleMania in Orlando on 4/2 was 64,900 paid. The most it could have been was 71,819 and the least it could have been was 58,491.
Although WWE announced 70,309 fans at Super Show-Down, Wrestling Observer Radio said that the actual attendance for the show was around 62,000 fans.
At the 2014 WrestleMania in the same building, they announced 75,167 fans, and the actual attendance was between 60,000 and 65,000, with 59,500 paid.
The combined New Japan/UWFI show on 10/9 at the Tokyo Dome set an all-time gate record for pro wrestling of more than $6 million. [...] The overflow crowd of 67,000, which included 2,200 standing room tickets sold the day of the show, was the largest crowd for any indoor event ever in Tokyo.
Shinya Hashimoto captured the IWGP heavyweight championship from Nobuhiko Takada via cross armbreaker submission to headline the 4/29 Tokyo Dome show which drew the second largest crowd in the history of Japanese wrestling and what is believed to be the second largest live gate in the history of pro wrestling. The card, entitled "'96 Battle Formation," drew a sellout crowd announced at 65,000 fans and a gate that should have approached $6 million
[WCW/New Japan Supershow II], which will air as an edited pay-per-view in mid-March in the United States, was said to be nowhere near the level of the initial combined show last March. The show drew a turnaway crowd of 60,000 fans. A few thousand seats that were used at the March show (which drew 64,500)
New Japan garnered tons of mainstream publicity which led to a crowd announced at 60,500, which everyone was thrilled with since the show's advance wasn't promising at all. This would probably be a gate around $5 million which will make it wind up as almost surely the second biggest money show of 1997 behind only the 1/4 Dome show when it comes to total revenue. The show wasn't sold out but was fairly close to capacity and we're told that announced figure sounded about right.
The other big show in the past few days, "Wrestling Dontaku," took place 5/3 at the Fukuoka Dome before 55,000 fans, so they failed to break the Japanese all-time attendance mark by booking a building larger than the Tokyo Dome.
New Japan's traditional biggest event of the year, which occurs every January 4th, entitled this year "`96 Wrestling War in Tokyo Dome," was built once again around the same New Japan vs. UWFI matches that set the record in October. This version drew a turnaway crowd of 64,000 fans, selling out nearly two weeks in advance, and a gate estimated at between $5 and $6 million along with a television audience estimated at 14 million. It was probably the second largest live gate in history (certainly no lower than third on the all-time list), was the ninth largest recorded crowd in history and the third largest crowd ever in Japan.
The annual New Japan Tokyo Egg Dome show has, which had its fifth version on Monday, 1/4, has in that time turned into from a prestige factor, right behind Wrestlemania as the biggest card of the year in the world. This year's show did nothing to hurt that reputation as the seventh largest recorded crowd to ever witness pro wrestling--63,500--sold the building out one week in advance to see a show that received raves from everyone I spoke with about it.
[T]he announced crowd of 53,500 fans paying an estimated $3 million. [...] Complete results of the 13-match show, which drew what will almost assuredly be the second largest crowd to attend pro wrestling in 1994 and 15th largest recorded crowd of all-time
The first pro wrestling event at the new Osaka Dome, New Japan's "Strong Style Evolution" headlined by the Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa rematch for the IWGP heavyweight title broke just about every record for pro wrestling in that city. The show drew basically a full house of 53,000 fans
We'll have more details next week. The show, billed as "Battle 7" (because it was New Japan's seventh annual Tokyo Dome show) drew a legit sellout 62,500 which makes it the eighth largest recorded crowd for pro wrestling of all-time.
New Japan's annual major event of the year, "'97 Wrestling World in Tokyo Dome" drew a reported 62,500 fans
According to WrestleTix, a total of 51,477 tickets were distributed.
What more can be said than a sellout of 60,000 at the Tokyo Dome and probably the largest house in the history of pro wrestling (a record that only lasted a few weeks) of somewhere between $5 and $6 million?
Onita's much-ballyhooed final match on 5/5 at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium drew a sellout of approximately 50,000 fans (announced at 58,250) which would be a gate in the $2.5 million range and tons more in merchandise
Triple Mania, headlined by the loser must retire match between Konnan El Barbaro (Carlos Espada) vs. Cien Caras (Carmelo Reyes), the top babyface and heel in the country, drew a sellout 48,000 fans of which between 42,000 and 45,000 were paid, or about the 12th largest verified paid attendance in pro wrestling history.
Well, the good of the promotion won out this time, however an ominous note was the failure of the show to sellout, the first time this has been the case for a New Japan Dome show since the first one in 1989. The crowd was announced at 62,000, although from our reports that is a slightly inflated figure as the outfield section was empty, although there were more than 50,000 there.
With an excellent line-up on paper, the show drew a crowd estimated at 48,000 (announced as 52,500).
Shinya Hashimoto solidified his unique all-time drawing power record with his headlining a sellout crowd of 43,500 at New Japan's first show ever at the Nagoya Dome on 8/10.
The Pehalwan match in a large stadium in his home country was a work gone awry with the hometown hero going against the script, and shooting on Inoki and biting him. Pehalwan was a national hero in Pakistan, doing stadium shows similar to Inoki or Dara Singh in India. But at this point he was 46 years old, and when he tried to shoot on Inoki, Inoki had little trouble with him, dominated him on the ground in the second round, and broke his arm using a Kimura from the bottom to sweep and submit him, before 40,000 fans at National Stadium in Karachi. It was probably the scariest moment of Inoki's life because a riot was about to break out and as legend has it, guns were being cocked and aimed in his direction. But in his traditional post-match wave to the fans in Pakistan, the fans saw it as a symbolic gesture that he was thanking Allah for the win, and thus the fans saw that his win was okay.
New Japan's final dome show of 1997 wound up on a flat note with an uneventful and largely disappointing show on 11/2 at the Fukuoka Dome. The crowd was announced at 48,000, although those there live estimated the real figure as closer to 40,000 in the largest indoor stadium in Japan with a capacity of just under 70,000, which would be the smallest Dome show crowd ever for the promotion.
