SPFL attendance figures: How Hearts and Hibs compare as 5 million barrier is broken

Hearts and Hibs attendance figures revealed as five million fans break SPFL record

Hearts and Hibs matches had the third and fourth highest attendances in Scotland in the season just finished – with an average of 18,500 and 17,500 fans turning up to at Tynecastle Park and Easter Road.

The 2022/23 SPFL season has broken new ground for fans, with the five million barrier has been broken for the first time in the organisation’s ten-year history.

New figures show that a total of 4,673,847 fans attended league games across Scotland’s top four divisions, with another 413,553 fans passing through the turnstiles in the Viaplay Cup and the SPFL Trust Trophy. In total, it means a record-breaking 5,087,400 fans across SPFL league and cup matches in Scotland this season. The Scottish Cup, European and other games are not included in the figures.

Hearts averaged more than 18,500 at Tynecastle in a season when the SPFL broke the 5 million barrier

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “It’s absolutely brilliant to see that more than five million fans have attended our matches in a season for the first time ever. It has been a great year for attendances in the country, with a new record yearly high for the Cinch Premiership games set, as well as Scotland again recording by far the highest per capita attendance in Europe. As we approach our ten-year anniversary it’s excellent to see such impressive attendances across all our four Cinch SPFL divisions.”

The figures beat the previous high of 4,902,673 fans across the league and cup competitions in the 2018/19 season. The SPFL has continued to top the match attendance per capita table across Europe over recent years.

Figures released in February this year showed that across Scotland’s top four divisions, there is an average of 21.3 attendees per 1,000 people – the highest recorded per capita figure in Europe. Second placed Netherlands averaged 12.9 attendees per 1,000 people, meaning Scotland beat that figure by more than 65 per cent. The transfermarkt summary has Denmark in third with 12.2 attendees per 1,000 people, followed by Iceland with 12.0 attendees and England & Wales with 11.4 attendees.

Behind Celtic and Rangers, Hearts and Hibs boasted the third and fourth highest average attendances in Scotland’s top flight, with figures from the transfermarkt football data site showing that the Tynecastle side averaged 18,513 per match (93.3 per cent of seats filled per match) and the Easter Road side 17,447 per match (86.2 per cent of seats filled per match). The Jambos also sold out their season tickets for the 22/23 campaign, selling 15,500 in total, slightly more than the more than 12,100 season tickets sold by the Hibees.

Statistics from the transfermarkt football data site show that FC Edinburgh averaged 569, the lowest in League One, while Bonnyrigg Rose averaged 920, the highest in League Two.

As expected, the vast majority of the 4.67 million league attendees were from the Premiership, with 3,835,434 fans attending games – a new record for the division. The Championship welcomed 397,373 fans, and League One and Two attracting 283,618 and 102,168 fans respectively. On top of this, a further 55,254 attended the several play-off games that took place at the end of the season.