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Australian Open smashes attendance records

This year’s Australian Open was officially the most attended on record.

More than 1.368 million tennis fans flocked to Melbourne Park for the 2026 tournament, easily surpassing last year’s record of 1.2 million.

This year’s record attendance figure was boosted by the tournament also having its biggest single day crowd on Thursday 22 January, when 103,956 spectators passed through the gates for day five action.

The record attendances began even before the two week grand slam event kicked off, with pre-tournament qualifying also proving popular.

More than 217,000 tennis fans enjoyed qualifying action the week before the main draw began, while charity events, AO Live and the first ever Australian Open Opening Ceremony featuring tennis titan Roger Federer, also attracted capacity crowds.

“This is another shining example of why we are the events capital of Australia,” Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos said of the record crowds at the 2026 Australia Open.

“It kickstarts a jampacked pipeline of major events, which supports our visitor economy and more than 288,000 Victorian jobs.”

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