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World · Ranked by capacity

The Biggest Stadiums in the World by Capacity

Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is the biggest in the world at 132,000, and it is a cricket ground. Seventeen venues ranked by published capacity, dominated by American college football, with every figure from a stadium, team or governing body that states it — which is why several grounds other lists include are absent from this one.

Marek ProcházkaWritten byMarek ProcházkaFreelance journalistLinkedIn Last updated

The biggest stadiums in the world, ranked

Global rankings disagree because most of them copy each other. Every row below is traced to a stadium, team, owner or operator statement, and says so where an owner gives an approximation or two figures on one page. The Melbourne Cricket Club is the model: it publishes 95,000 seats plus about 5,000 standing rather than a bare total, which is the difference between a figure you can check and one you cannot. The biggest football stadium in the world is a separate question: FNB Stadium leads on its headline figure, Estadio Banorte on the sorted one.

The 17 biggest stadiums in the world by capacity
Stadium City Country Sport Capacity
Narendra Modi Stadium Ahmedabad India Cricket 132,000
Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor United States American football 107,601
Beaver Stadium University Park United States American football 106,572
Ohio Stadium Columbus United States American football 102,780
Kyle Field College Station United States American football 102,733
Tiger Stadium Baton Rouge United States American football 102,231
Neyland Stadium Knoxville United States American football 101,915
Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin United States American football 100,119
Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa United States American football 100,077
Melbourne Cricket Ground Melbourne Australia Cricket and Australian rules football 100,024
Estadio Banorte Mexico City Mexico Football 87,000
Bukit Jalil National Stadium Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Football 85,500
FNB Stadium Johannesburg South Africa Football 94,736 or 90,000 or 84,490 differs
MetLife Stadium East Rutherford United States American football 82,500
AT&T Stadium Arlington United States American football 80,000
Maracanã Rio de Janeiro Brazil Football 78,838
Gelora Bung Karno Stadium Jakarta Indonesia Football 77,193
1 ground where sources disagree
FNB Stadium
Three figures from two official sources. The City of Johannesburg publishes a headline capacity and, on the same page, a lower maximum for the 2010 World Cup after press and VIP reservations; the naming-rights partner states a third figure. City of Johannesburg, headline capacity states 94,736. FNB, the naming-rights partner states 90,000. City of Johannesburg states 84,490 (2010 World Cup maximum, after press and VIP allocations).
17 sources, last checked 26 August 2026

Board of Control for Cricket in India, accepted · City of Johannesburg, accepted · Dallas Cowboys, accepted · Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, accepted · Government of Mexico City, accepted · LSU Athletics, accepted · Melbourne Cricket Club, accepted · MetLife Stadium, accepted · Ohio State Athletics, accepted · Penn State Athletics, accepted · Perbadanan Stadium Malaysia, accepted · Riotur, Rio de Janeiro official tourism body, accepted · Texas A&M Athletics, accepted · University of Alabama Athletics, accepted · University of Michigan Athletics, accepted · University of Tennessee Athletics, accepted · University of Texas Athletics, accepted

Which is the biggest cricket stadium?

Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is the biggest cricket stadium in the world at 132,000, rebuilt on the site of the old Motera ground and reopened in 2020. It is roughly 32,000 larger than the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which held the record for most of the previous century. Cricket grounds take first and tenth here, a fact almost entirely missing from stadium sites built around European football: the sport's biggest venues sit in India and Australia.

The biggest NFL and college football stadiums

American football fills the top of this list in a way no other sport does. Michigan Stadium holds 107,601 and Beaver Stadium 106,572, and both belong to universities rather than professional franchises. Seven of the world's twelve largest venues are American college grounds, built for 1920s crowds and never shrunk. The full American ranking, including the professional venues, is covered on the largest stadiums in the USA page rather than duplicated here.

Which is the biggest NFL stadium?

MetLife Stadium is the biggest NFL stadium at 82,500, which places it outside the world's top twenty and below nine college grounds. No NFL venue has ever been built to college scale. Franchises optimise for hospitality boxes, sightlines and television revenue rather than raw volume, and a professional owner paying for the concrete has no reason to build seats that fill six times a year.

Isn't the North Korean stadium the biggest?

Probably not, but nobody outside North Korea can show it. Rungrado 1st of May is published at 150,000 or 114,000 depending on the list, and neither figure traces to the stadium, its team, its owner or its operator. Borg El Arab in Alexandria is absent for the same reason: the repeated 86,000 has no official source. Salt Lake in Kolkata has two official figures, forty years and 35,000 seats apart, neither of them current and exact.

Why the biggest stadiums are not the busiest

Capacity measures the roof, not the crowd. Michigan Stadium fills roughly seven Saturdays a season, and the Melbourne Cricket Ground sells out only for a Grand Final or a Boxing Day Test. A ranking by seats rewards venues that sit empty for most of the calendar, which is the most misleading thing about every list of this kind, this one included. Anyone searching for the largest stadium in the world gets the same answer from every list; asking which is the busiest gets a completely different one.

Which stadium has the highest average attendance?

Signal Iduna Park has led global average attendance for over a decade at roughly 81,000 a match, despite ranking outside the world's top twenty by capacity. Among the largest venues only Michigan Stadium and the Melbourne Cricket Ground come close on a per-event basis, and neither fills more than a handful of times a year. Rank a list by annual spectators rather than seats and the order changes almost completely.

Test yourself

What sport is played at the biggest stadium in the world?

Show the answer

Cricket. Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad holds 132,000, and eight of the ten largest grounds in the world are American college football venues.

Narendra Modi Stadium, read — source

The other rankings

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