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AAP
AAP
Sport
Tom Wark

Five-day Ashes epic breaks all-time crowd record

The fifth Ashes match at the SCG has broken attendance records for a Sydney Test. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

More than 200,000 people have attended a Test match in Sydney for the first time, breaking a record set in the Bradman era.

The final figure of 211,032 who passed through the SCG gates was more than enough to break the 79-year record, with the mark passed comfortably before play began on Thursday.

The previous record of 195,253 was set over six days in December 1946, when Australia beat England by an innings off the back of matching 234 scores from Don Bradman and Sid Barnes.

The first four days of the final Ashes Test were all sold out, and the cost of admission for the final day was a $30 ticket, with proceeds going to the McGrath Foundation.

SCG crowd.
A huge crowd lined up waiting for the gates to open on the first day of the SCG Ashes Test. (Dean Lewins/AAP PHOTOS)

As they have all summer, the Barmy Army's insatiable appetite for Test cricket swelled the crowd, with travelling support filling the majority of the Victor Trumper Stand as their team battled for an unlikely victory.

"We're so lucky and so thankful that wherever we go in the world we have the Barmy Army ... who come around and watch us," England captain Ben Stokes said at the post-series presentation.

"They're going to be as disappointed as us about the way the series has gone, but that should never take away the gratitude."

If the two-day Tests in Perth and Melbourne had been extended, the series would have stood a real chance of breaking the all-time record for a summer of 946,750.

The final mark after the pink Test was 859,580, with attendance losses in Perth and Melbourne estimated to be at least 210,000.

Despite not breaking the overall record, the 2025-26 season will still beat last summer's benchmark for the highest daily average crowd.

The five-day Adelaide Test was also the most attended of any in Australia outside of Melbourne, while the Gabba had its second biggest of all time.

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