New research from Roy Morgan shows Sydney FC topping the 2024 Roy Morgan A-League club supporter ladder with 761,000 fans, virtually unchanged on a year ago, and well over 100,000 more fans than any other club in the league.
Sydney FC has been the most successful club in the A-League Men winning 5 Championships – although only one Championship victory in the last five years in 2019-20.
The Brisbane Roar is clearly in second place with 642,000 supporters, virtually unchanged on a year ago. The Roar has also been amongst the most successful clubs in the history of the A-League and has won 3 Championships – although their last victory was over a decade ago in 2014.
In a clear third place is the Melbourne Victory with 588,000 supporters, representing a significant decrease of 27,000 (-4.4%) on a year ago – the largest decline of any club in the competition. The Victory have been the second most successful club in the A-League Men winning 4 Championships.
The current back-to-back A-League Men Champions the Central Coast Mariners increased their support by 18,000 (+10.3%) in the last year to 192,000 and have more than doubled their support since the low of 2020 (84,000). The Mariners won back-to-back Championships in 2023 and 2024.
Over 4 million Australians now support an A-League club, up over 1.4 million (+52.5%) on 2020
Support for the A-League as a whole has increased over 50,000 (+1.3%) from a year ago and is up over 1,400,000 (+52.5%) on four years ago.
Since 2020 two new clubs have joined the A-League Men. Macarthur FC joined the A-League Men for the 2020-21 season and now has 58,000 supporters and Auckland FC joined the A-League Men this season and sits on top of the ladder undefeated after the first seven rounds of the season. Auckland FC debuted in the A-League Men after the interviewing dates for this research.
In total, over 1.6 million Australians (7.2%) watch the A-League on TV. However, a much larger 6.1 million (27.2%) have watched any soccer match on TV.
This large audience includes 5.3 million (23.6%) who watched at least part of the FIFA World Cup – last held in Qatar in November and December 2022. This means a significant untapped market of around 4 million Australians is available for the A-League, in the shape of those who exclusively watch international leagues or international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup.
A look at who engages with the A-League shows TV viewership is highest for Generation X* (7.8%) and Millennials (7.6%) and Generation X (7.1%). When it comes to attending a soccer match the younger generations leads the way with Generation Z in front at 7.5% ahead of Millennials at 7.4%.
More: https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9778-a-league-supporter-ladder-2024
