The Sydney Swans have again topped the annual Roy Morgan AFL supporter ladder as the only club with over 1 million supporters. The Swans now have 1,344,000 supporters, an increase of 209,000 supporters (+18.4%) on a year ago according to the 2023 annual Roy Morgan AFL club supporters survey – the largest increase of any AFL club over the last 12 months.
A majority of 13 of the AFL’s 18 clubs experienced an increase in support over the last year with the largest increases for the top three clubs mentioned above.
AFL Club Supporter Ladder 2023
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, July 2021 – June 2022, n=65,321 and July 2022 - June 2023 n=66,234. Base: Australians 14+.
The research also showed that over 9.6 million Australians now support an AFL club, up over 680,000 on a year ago.
In addition, there are 8,451,000 Australians who watched at least one AFL match on TV, up 706,000 (+9.1%) on a year ago and up by over 1 million (+13.9%) from 2019.
Julian McCrann, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan, says the growth in the AFL industry over the last year has been spectacular with supporter bases, club memberships and crowd attendances all hitting new record highs this season:
“Although the last three completed AFL seasons of 2020-2022 were heavily disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, they did not hamper the growth of the game. Compared to 2019 all the key metrics have increased rapidly and significantly.
“Now a record of over 9.6 million Australians told Roy Morgan they supported at least one of the 18 AFL clubs – an increase of 706,000 (+9.1%) on a year ago and up by over 1 million compared to the same time in 2019 before any of us had ever heard of COVID-19.
“For an incredible 18th straight year it is the Sydney Swans on top with 1.34 million supporters, an increase of 209,000 (+18.4%) on a year ago after the club contested its sixth Grand Final this century last year. Despite failing to win the Premiership in 2022 (or this year in 2023), the Swans have far and away the most supporters of any club – over 450,000 in front of any other club."
To read the full Roy Morgan report click here.
