The 2023
Australian Open set the record for the highest attendance ever recorded in any Grand Slam tournament. The season's first Grand Slam achieved a remarkable feat with more than 900,000 tennis fans attending the matches over two weeks at Melbourne Park.
This year's Melbourne Major broke 2020's record of 812,174 spectators watching the COVID-19 inflicted Australian Open 2020. This year, despite the absence of some high-profiles in
Nick Kyrgios,
Naomi Osaka, and
Carlos Alcaraz, among others, the number rose to 839,192 visiting Melbourne Park to witness their favorite players back in action.
Adding on to the already never-seen-before numbers, a total of 63,120 more fans also attended the qualifiers of the Australian Open 2023, thus taking the number to 902,312 fans.
The Australian Open 2023 record attendance was much higher than last year's Grand Slam tournaments. 515,164 fans visited the Wimbledon Championships, 613,500 at the French Open, and 776,120 went to New York to enjoy the year's last Grand Slam, the US Open. The 2022 Melbourne Slam saw an attendance of 346,468 fans.
"It was reported that we didn't have the greats any more, that it was going to be terrible. But people just want to be entertained," Australian Open executive Craig Tiley said. "They want to have some fun, and tennis is a great option for them, and it's become a summer thing to do for Melburnians and for Australians and also for our guests from around the world."