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A list of the top 30 most attended IIHF World Championships (out of 85 total). The 2015 tournament, in Prague and Ostrava (Czech Republic), holds the record for overall attendance and the record for average spectators per game. Not included are the Olympic tournaments, which though they are run as an IIHF tournament, have been separate from the World Championships since 1972.

Despite reluctance in some circles to have such a tournament in Olympic years, three of the five most attended World Championships overall have taken place on years that coincided with the holding of a best-on-best tournament, either the Olympics (2010 and 2014) or the World Cup of Hockey (2004).

It should be considered that because of a changing pool-size of teams through the years, the number of games contested at the IIHF World Championships can range from 32 in 1979 to 64 in 2012 and beyond, therefore "attendance per game" is an equally important statistic to measure the success of a given tournament. Ten tournaments have had averages over 9,000 spectators per game, and six have topped the 10,000 mark.

In an effort to broaden the sport's appeal, the number of top division teams was increased from a mere 8 (as late as 1991) to 16 (starting in 1998), leading to an influx of lesser teams that could negatively impact average attendance. To combat this, some organizers have aggressively pushed the sale of day passes that bundle popular games with less sought-after ones.

Finland hosted six of the top 30 most attended tournaments. There are three countries with five of the top 30 most attended tournaments: Czech Republic (including three tournaments held in Czechoslovakia), Russia (including two tournaments held in the Soviet Union) and Sweden. Germany hosted three of the top 30 most attended tournaments, Slovakia – two. There are 7 other countries who have hosted the championships at least once, and are represented on the top 30.

List[]

Year Host country Total attendance Number of games Attendance per game Ref
2015 Flag of the Czech Republic Czech Republic 741,690 64 11,589 [1]
2017 Flag of Germany Germany & Flag of France France 686,391 64 10,725
2014 Flag of Belarus Belarus 640,044 64 10,001 [2]
2004 Flag of the Czech Republic Czech Republic 552,097 56 9,859 [3]
2010 Flag of Germany Germany 548,768 56 9,799 [4]
1997 Flag of Finland Finland 526,172 52 10,119 [5]
2018 Flag of Denmark Denmark 520,481 64 8,133
2008 Flag of Canada Canada 477,040 54 8,834
2019 Flag of Slovakia Slovakia 470,853 64 7,357 [6]
2012 Flag of Finland Finland & Flag of Sweden Sweden 451,054 64 7,048 [7]
2003 Flag of Finland Finland 449,193 56 8,021 [8]
2023 Flag of Finland Finland & Flag of Latvia Latvia 442,160 64 6,909
2013 Flag of Sweden Sweden † & Flag of Finland Finland 427,818 64 6,685
2016 Flag of Russia Russia 417,414 64 6,522
1985 Flag of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia 411,659 40 10,291 [9]
2001 Flag of Germany Germany 407,547 56 7,277
2011 Flag of Slovakia Slovakia 406,804 56 7,264
1989 Flag of Sweden Sweden 388,190 40 9,704
2009 Flag of Switzerland Switzerland 379,044 56 6,768
1986 Flag of Soviet Union Soviet Union 362,710 40 9,067
2022 Flag of Finland Finland 356,955 64 5,577
1979 Flag of Soviet Union Soviet Union 354,500 32 11,078
2007 Flag of Russia Russia 330,708 56 5,905
1995 Flag of Sweden Sweden 325,571 40 8,139
2006 Flag of Latvia Latvia 324,794 56 5,799
2005 Flag of Austria Austria 323,974 56 5,785
2000 Flag of Russia Russia 318,449 56 5,686
1991 Flag of Finland Finland 310,627 40 7,765
2002 Flag of Sweden Sweden 305,541 56 5,456
1978 Flag of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia 248,920 40 6,223
1992 Flag of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia 246,173 39 6,312
† = team won the championship as host

See also[]

References[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at List of IIHF World Championships by attendance. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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