Attendance at The Men's Ashes in the UK 2023

During the 2023 Ashes in England, the men's series attracted approximately 545 thousand live spectators across the five test matches. Meanwhile, the women’s series attracted record-breaking crowds, with roughly 110 thousand attendees watching the action live in the stadiums.

A tale of two nail-biting draws

Both the men’s and women’s 2023 Ashes series ended in draws and Australia thereby retaining the Ashes. The results for both series were decided in dramatic fashion on the final days of play, with the English men’s and women’s teams winning their last matches to secure series draws. The final Test match of the men’s series proved especially poignant since England’s all-time highest wicket-taker in The Ashes, Stuart Broad, announced his retirement ahead of the final day and bowed out of professional cricket by taking the last wicket of the match and series.

How many people watched The Ashes on TV?

The 2023 Ashes attracted multi-million TV audiences in both Australia and the United Kingdom. In the UK, TV viewership of The Ashes rose from approximately 15.6 million in 2019, which was the last time the country hosted the series, to over 17 million in 2023. A large share of this viewership came from the TV audience for The Women’s Ashes, which accounted for over seven million viewers that year. TV audience sizes in Australia for the 2023 Men's Ashes were understandably less than in the UK, with the difference in time zones restricting viewership. However, viewership still reached over 2.5 million for each Test and peaked during the second Test at roughly 6.2 million.