It’s well known that WWE historically inflates the actual attendance figures for WrestleMania events on the night of the show. It takes a few months until WWE releases their earnings reports for the quarter that WrestleMania took place in to find out the real number.
This year’s show was no different. WWE announced 82,265 fans at WrestleMania 35 this past April at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This was not the actual number.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this year’s paid number was 63,000.
He would then write, “with it being a legit sellout, that says that the stage must have been blocking off more seats as WrestleManias that sellout legit will have 5,000 to 7,000 comps, so the real figure would have been 68,000 to 70,000.”
WWE last held an event at MetLife Stadium in 2013 with WrestleMania 29 that was headlined by John Cena vs. The Rock. At the time, WWE announced 80,676 were in the building. There were 68,900 fans in attendance who paid for their tickets with a real number of 74,300 in the building.
Here is a chart of announced vs. real attendance figures for WrestleMania from 2008 – 2018:
Wrestlemania attendance, 2008-2018. WWE's announced attendance vs. what their own financial reporting implies.
Data: https://t.co/qfUxsviNJz pic.twitter.com/CPzlHPlxga
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) March 16, 2019
News from The Wrestling Observer website was used in this post. For more on this story please visit WrestlingObserver.com. Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez’ WrestlingObserver.com is the leading source for professional wrestling news. Click here for subscription information. Members get exclusive access to insider news from Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez, daily audio shows, breaking news audio, the Wrestling Observer newsletter, newsletter archives, thousands of hours of archived radio shows, and much more.
