Dave Meltzer Breaks Down WWE & AEW 2024 Attendance Figures

2024 is officially over and many people have been looking back at the year that was. One metric that has been studied by Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has been attendance figures for both WWE and AEW, who broke down the highs and lows for both companies compared to years gone by. Meltzer noted that the figures came courtesy of both WrestleTix and William Zdon, mentioning that these figures are total attendance and not paid attendance as they would be approximately seven to 12% lower.

WWE had one of its most impressive years ever, as the company reportedly ended 2024 with average attendance of more than 10,000 for the first time since 2001, averaging around 12,100 people per show. In terms of the entire company, Meltzer claims that 2024 is also the fourth best year for average attendance in WWE history, only placing behind 1999, 2000, and 2001, when the company was riding high in the Attitude Era.

The official average for 2024 for WWE was 10,859 fans, an increase of 19.8% compared to the 9,067 fans in 2023. However, Meltzer sees this as an artificial bump as the company drastically cut back on house shows throughout the year, and began running stadiums for events like Elimination Chamber to boost the average from 2023's figure. 

With that said, the company's TV events are consistent with these figures as "WWE Raw" averaged 10,478 fans, while "WWE SmackDown" averaged 11,498, which marks increases of 10.3% and 9.7% from 2023, respectively. WWE also reported a large number of sell outs in 2024, which included shows with less than 500 tickets left on sale.

AEW's attendance figures have been a cause for concern for a while, especially when it comes to the company's weekly TV shows. For 2024, AEW's averaged 4,227 attendees, which Dave Meltzer noted is a bit misleading as the company chose to run smaller buildings throughout the year, such as the Esports Stadium residency in Arlington, Texas for "AEW Collision" in the summer, and the Hammerstein Ballroom for "Collision" and "AEW Dynamite" over the weekend before Christmas. 

However, Meltzer also believes that the Wembley Stadium figure, which is reportedly over 53,000 in tickets sold but 46,000 at the turnstiles, balances it out. All of these things factored into the 2024 average being 27.3% lower than the 2023 average of 5,812, and also lower than the 2022 average of 5,623.

In terms of individual shows, "Dynamite" saw a 26.7% drop from 5,042 to 3,694 fans, while "Collision" saw an even steeper drop of 38.7% from 4,176 to 2,559 fans. As previously mentioned, Meltzer pointed out "Collision's" Arlington residency as a reason for the drop, but when taking that out of the equation, it is still a notable decrease from the year before. Whereas "Dynamite's" numbers are a fair comparison point, as the Hammerstein Ballroom is the only small building the show was held in during 2024.

It isn't all doom and gloom for AEW, as the company's averages compared to figures from the past are still very promising. Meltzer reported that 4,227 would beat a lot of WWE averages from the early 1990s, and when compared to WCW, the 2024 average was higher than anything the promotion put out besides the three-year stretch between 1997 and 1999.