The Saudi Pro League has been criticised for its low attendances, but how do the attendance figures in Saudi Arabia compare to Europe’s 39 biggest leagues?
It will come as no surprise that the biggest attendance figures come from Europe’s top five leagues. As things stand, the Bundesliga is currently the best-attended league in the world with average gates of 39,458.
The Premier League isn’t far behind in second place with average attendances of just over 38,000 during the 2023-24 campaign. The rest of the top five is then made up of the Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga 2.
In total, there are 21 Europen leagues which have garnered a higher average attendance than the Saudi Pro League has managed this season.
As things stand, the Saudi Pro League has had an average attendance of 8,345 which is less than the Championship, League One, Serie B, La Liga 2 and Bundesliga 3.
Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli each average over 17,000 fans, but some of the smaller clubs in the league drastically bring down the average for the league.
For example, Al-Riyadh have only managed to draw an average crowd of just over 1,300 this season and at times attendances have even dipped below the 300 mark.
Cristiano Ronaldo recently made the bold claim that the Saudi Pro League is better than Ligue 1, although they still have some catching up to do in terms of attendance.
The French league has averaged gates of 26,608 this season which is over 18,000 more than the Saudi Pro League has managed.
“To be honest I think the Saudi League is not worse than French league, in my opinion,” Ronaldo said.
“In [the] French league I think you have two, three teams with a good level. In Saudi now I think it’s more competitive. They can say whatever they want, it’s just my opinion and I played there one year so I know what I’m talking about.
“But I think right now we are better than [the] French league, we still improve.”
Time will tell if the Saudi Pro League project will continue to grow at its current rate. As things stand, they still have plenty of catching up to do in terms of growing the number of match-going fans.
Using data provided by Transfermarkt, we have compared the average Saudi Pro League attendance in 2023-24 with Europe’s 39 biggest leagues.
1. Bundesliga (Germany) – 39,458
2. Premier League (England) – 38,303
3. Serie A (Italy) – 30,429
4. La Liga (Spain) – 29,156
5. Bundesliga 2 (Germany) – 28,217
6. Ligue 1 (France) – 26,608
7. Championship (England) – 22,868
8. Eredivisie (Netherlands) – 19,698
9. Scottish Premiership (Scotland) – 16,715
10. Liga Portugal (Portugal) – 11,620
11. PKO BP Ekstraklasa (Poland) – 11,593
12. Super League (Switzerland) – 11,269
13. Super Lig (Turkey) – 11,133
14. Jupiler Pro League (Belgium) – 10,985
15. Russian Premier Liga (Russia) – 10,664
16. Allsvenskan (Sweden) – 9,958
17. La Liga 2 (Spain) – 9,932
18. Superliga (Denmark) – 9,923
19. League One (England) – 9,544
20. Bundesliga 3 (Germany) – 9,259
21. Serie B (Italy) – 8,732
22. Saudi Pro League (Saudi Arabia) – 8,345
23. Ligue 2 (France) – 8,227
24. Austrian Football Bundesliga (Austria) – 7,964
25. Super League 1 (Greece) – 7,087 26. SuperLiga (Romania) – 6,855 27. Ligat ha’Al (Israel) – 6,596 28. Fortuna Liga – (Czech Republic) – 6,411 29. League Two (England) – 6,167 30. Eliteserien (Norway) – 5,712 31. League of Ireland Premier Division (Republic of Ireland) – 3,757 32. Premier Liga (Kazakhstan) – 3,432 33. SuperSport HNL (Croatia) – 2,841 34. Nike Liga (Slovakia) – 2,517 35. Premijer Liga (Bosnia) – 2,384 36. Super Liga Srbije (Serbia) – 2,016 37. Veikkausliiga (Finland) – 1,946 38. Sports Direct Premiership (Northern Ireland) – 1,659 39. Vysheyshaya Liga (Belarus) – 1,469 40. Premyer Liqa (Azerbaijan) – 1,443