12 German clubs in the top 50
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In 2025, 29 clubs worldwide played their home games in front of an average of over 50,000 spectators – eight of which are German clubs. The supporters of Borussia Mönchengladbach (26th place | 52,189 spectators), Tottenham Hotspur (14th | 60,943) and West Ham United (11th | 62,460) have proven to be particularly hardy, because among the biggest fan magnets in the world, these clubs are the only ones that scored an average of less than one point per home game in 2025. Schalke (12th | 61,904) and Hertha BSC (24th | 53,020) are the only second division teams in the world to break the 50,000 mark, while River Plate defended its place at the top of the rankings with 85,018 spectators ahead of the two top German clubs.
The fact that there is only one Argentine club in the list this time, the club from the Belgrano district of Buenos Aires, is because there are only reliable figures from River – a circumstance that many clubs and leagues outside of Europe struggle with. In 2024, Boca Juniors, CA Talleres and Racing Club also made it into the top 50 fan magnets. The data is more reliable in Brazil, which takes part twice – Flamengo Rio de Janeiro made it into the top ten with an average of 62,548 fans. Other teams outside Europe include Dalian Yingbo (20th | 58,268) and Beijing Guoan (41st | 44,975) from China and Atlanta United (43rd | 43,992) from the USA. Turkey is represented by Galatasaray (46th | 43,086), while Portugal has three clubs and Scotland and the Netherlands made it into the top 50 twice.
Ranks one to four remained unchanged compared to 2024. Behind them, Real Madrid was able to overtake the Milan clubs AC and Inter – the city rivals swapped places. Olympique Marseille climbed from 10th to 8th and Flamengo edged out West Ham. German clubs are most frequently represented in the global top 50: eight Bundesliga teams plus four second division teams. The Premier League follows with nine teams, including Everton FC (40th | 45,401), who played the first half of 2025 at Goodison Park, which opened in 1892, before the club moved to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, three kilometers away.
There was also a move at FC Barcelona (37th | 45,911): from the alternative stadium Olímpic Lluís Companys, which is unpopular with fans, to the Camp Nou, which has been under renovation since June 2023. The end of the work is planned for the summer of 2026, when the stadium will have space for 105,000 spectators and make Barça the world number one again. Gradually, more and more fans are allowed into the arena until it reaches full capacity – most recently there were a good 42,000.
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Despite the small stadium by Barça standards, Hansi Flick’s team made a big impression in 2025. In the international comparison of the best home teams, the Catalans take first place with an average of 2.75 points in 20 league games. There are eight teams in the top 10 of the strongest home teams, which are also among the biggest spectator magnets. Only the Croatian runner-up Dinamo Zagreb, who scored an average of 2.61 points per game in front of around 11,000 spectators, and the Czech champions Slavia Prague, who scored 2.75 points per home game in front of 18,100 fans, play in front of comparatively small crowds. While Prague’s Fortuna Arena is well attended with an occupancy rate of 94.3 percent, Dinamo Zagreb largely plays in a more than half-empty, dilapidated stadium.
When it comes to capacity utilization, the Bundesliga and the Premier League are neck and neck. While 97.2 percent of all tickets were sold in Germany’s top division in 2025, it was almost 97 percent in the world’s richest football league. You can only dream of that in LaLiga, Serie A and Ligue 1 with 81 to 82 percent. In the 2nd Bundesliga, the arenas were around 89 percent full in 2025. Schalke (12th | 61,904) also ensures this value, whose arena was 99.2 percent full and was able to leave behind heavyweights such as Atlético Madrid (13th | 61,544) and Tottenham (14th | 60,943), even though they have larger stadiums.
VfL Wolfsburg had the lowest occupancy rate in the Bundesliga at 84 percent. The spectators saw the weakest home team in the league, which scored an average of 0.76 points per game in the Volkswagen Arena. When it comes to home weakness, Gladbach follows with 0.82 points and 1. FC Heidenheim with 0.83 points. The Voith Arena, which is regularly filled with 15,000 spectators, is 99 percent sold out. Only BVB and FC Bayern had 100 percent capacity utilization, and they once again took second and third place in the international comparison of fan magnets.