An event steeped in history and tradition, The Wimbledon Championships is one of the biggest sporting events of the year, both in the UK and abroad. And the numbers back it up. If you’re as much of a fan of data as we are, you’ll love these Wimbledon statistics, facts and figures.
Wimbledon Statistics - The Highlights
Looking for the quick version? Here are some of our favourite Wimbledon stats, facts and figures:
- 532,651 attended the 2023 Wimbledon Championships which is a record high attendance at Wimbledon.
- The 2023 Men’s Singles final that saw Carlos Alcaraz defeat Novak Djokovic in a five set thriller achieved a peak audience of 11.3 million viewers, which was the most watched final since Andy Murray won in 2016.
- In 2024, a total of 797 players entered the Wimbledon Championships, representing a total of 58 different countries. Naturally, the UK was the best represented with 118 British players in the tournament, closely followed by the USA on 104.
- In 2024, each of the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Singles Champions will receive a whopping £2,700,000.
- The LTA’s revenue generated by the Wimbledon Championships in 2023 was £56.1 million, which represents 51.7% of the LTA’s total revenue in 2023.
- Google searches for “Wimbledon” during the 2023 Championships set a new record of 101 million searches in July 2023.
Historic Wimbledon Facts
- The first edition of the Wimbledon Championships took place in 1877, making it the oldest tennis tournament in the world.
- The first edition of the tournament featured only 22 players competing in the men’s singles.
- In 1884, Maud Watson became the first ever female Wimbledon Champion.
- The first television broadcast at Wimbledon started in 1937, provided by the BBC.
- Slazenger has been the official ball supplier for the Wimbledon Championships since 1902, making the partnership between Slazenger and the AELTC the longest partnership in sporting goods history.
- Yellow tennis balls were first introduced at Wimbledon in 1986.
- Only 8 editions of the Wimbledon Championships since 1922 have recorded no rain delay: 1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995, 2009, 2010, 2019.
- 2022 marked 100 years since the AELTC relocated to its current location on Church Road in 1922 and also marked the centenary of Centre Court.
Wimbledon Traditions
As we all know, Wimbledon is an event that is steeped in tradition and perhaps the oldest one is centred around food. The tradition of eating strawberries and cream dates back to the very first edition of the Championships, and I think we can all agree that it’s gotten a bit out of hand.
In fact, more than 38.4 tonnes of strawberries are consumed during the two weeks at Wimbledon. That’s more than 140,000 punnets of strawberries, or 1.92 million strawberries to be precise.
And while we’re talking about food and drink, it’s worth highlighting the 18,061 servings of fish and chips, 64,703 ice cream portions, and 276,291 glasses of Pimm’s that are consumed during the Championships.
But of course, the most well known tradition is probably Wimbledon’s “All-White” rule, which requires competitors to wear predominantly white clothing and was introduced in 1963. In 2023, the rule was amended to allow female players to wear dark-coloured undershorts.
Wimbledon Grounds & Facilities
The All England Club is home to some of the best and most up-to-date facilities in the world of tennis and has a total capacity of up to 42,000 spectators at any given time throughout the Grounds.
Wimbledon boasts a total of 18 tournament grass courts used during the Championships, as well as 22 practice grass courts at Aorangi Park. The Wimbledon grass on all 18 match courts is cut to just 8 mm though not all tennis courts are created equal.
Centre Court, Wimbledon’s crown-jewel, is one of the biggest tennis stadiums in the world and has a maximum capacity of 14,979 tennis fans. It’s so big that a total of 290 million tennis balls would fit inside Centre Court with the roof closed. And speaking of the roof, the Centre Court roof was installed in 2009, weighs a total of 3,000 tonnes and takes up to 10 minutes to close.
The second biggest court at the AELTC is Court 1, which now has an increased capacity of 12,345 since its renovation in 2019. It previously had a capacity of 11,432. Next in line is Court 2 which has a capacity of 4,000 fans.
And if the Grounds weren’t already beautiful enough, over 50,000 plants are supplied every year to decorate the AELTC.
Wimbledon Attendance Statistics
The 2023 Wimbledon Championships set a new attendance record, registering a total of 532,651 guests through the gates during the Fortnight. Here’s what Wimbledon attendance looks like since 2007:
It’s worth noting that the 2020 edition of The Championships was cancelled due to Covid-19 and the 2021 edition saw reduced attendance due to Covid-19 restrictions and limits to capacity.
Wimbledon Viewership Numbers
As well as all the people experiencing the tennis at Wimbledon, there’s also a staggering number of people that watch The Championships on TV. In fact, the BBC’s coverage of the 2023 Championships exceeded digital records once again, with 54.3 million streams on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online – up from 53.8 million in 2022.
The 2023 Men’s Singles Final that saw Carlos Alcaraz defeat Novak Djokovic in a five set thriller achieved a peak audience of 11.3 million viewers, which was the most watched final since Andy Murray won in 2016. The 2023 Ladies Singles Final in which Marketa Vondrousova was victorious over Ons Jabeur, peaked at an audience of 4.5 million on BBC One. However, it will come as no surprise that the most-watched tennis match at Wimbledon in recent years is of course the 2013 Men’s Singles Final which peaked at 17.29 million viewers when Andy Murray became the first male British to win the title since Fred Perry in 1936, ending a 77 year drought. Here’s what the viewership of the Men’s and Ladies singles finals has changed over the years:
Wimbledon On Court Statistics
- The longest tennis match in history took place on Court 18, where John Isner (USA) beat Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68 in 11 hrs 05 mins.
- The fastest serves ever recorded during the Championships are Taylor Dent’s (USA) 148 mph serve in 2010 and Venus Williams’ (USA) 129 mph serve in 2008.
- Roger Federer holds the record for most Wimbledon Men’s Singles titles with a total of 8. The Ladies’ Singles record is held by Martina Navratilova who won the title 9 times.
- In 2023, Ladies Singles champion Marketa Vondrousova became just the third player in history (and only female player) to lift the title as an unseeded player. Before then, only Boris Becker in 1985 and Goran Ivanišević in 2001 had completed the fairytale run at Wimbledon.
- The longest Wimbledon final was the 2019 Men’s Singles Final that saw Novak Djokovic defeat Roger Federer in an epic five-set thriller that lasted 4 hrs 57 mins. It’s widely considered to be one of the greatest tennis matches of all time.
- Across The 2019 Championships, including the Qualifying Competition, 146,860 points were played, across 24,009 games and 1,520 hours of tennis played.
- Over 55,000 tennis balls are used during The Championships, of which 23,691 used balls were sold as memorabilia.
- Wimbledon’s stringing team string over 2,000 rackets during The Championships, comprising 60% for men, 40% for women. If you unravelled all that string, it would add up to 40 miles of string.
Wimbledon Player Statistics
In 2024, a total of 797 players entered the Wimbledon Championships, representing a total of 58 different countries. The countries with the most players are the following:
Naturally, the UK was the best represented with 118 British players in the tournament, closely followed by the USA on 105. By comparison, a total of 858 players representing 63 different nationalities participated in the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.
Wimbledon Ball Boys, Ball Girls & Officials
- Every year, approximately 250 BBGs are selected to work at the Championships, of which roughly 170 are selected from years 9 and 10 in nearby schools and roughly 80 are selected from previous years.
- A total of 377 officials work during the Championships, including 327 as Chair Umpires and Line Umpires who cover more than 650 matches during the Wimbledon fortnight. Of those, 187 are British officials from the ABTO (Association of British Tennis Officials) and 140 are overseas officials.
Wimbledon Prize Money & Finances
The prize money on offer at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a record total of £50,000,000 which represents an +11.86% increase from the previous year.
Each of the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Singles Champions receive a whopping £2,700,000.
However, Wimbledon hasn’t always offered equal prize money to men and women. In fact, equal prize money for male and female players wasn’t introduced until 2007. Here’s how the Wimbledon prize money for the singles champions has evolved over the years:
In December 2008, Wimbledon and the LTA agreed that the LTA would receive 90% of any distributable financial surplus resulting from The Championships until at least 2053, in exchange for the club recovering the LTA’s 50% share of ownership in the AELTC. Based on the LTA’s Financial Reports, the LTA’s revenue generated by the Wimbledon Championships in 2023 was £56.1 million, which represents 51.7% of the LTA’s total revenue in 2023. Here’s the data:
Wimbledon in the Digital Age
Wimbledon In Search
It will come as no surprise that, according to Google Trends data, the Wimbledon Championships are most popular in the UK. However, Google Trends data also shows that Australia is the second most interested nation, followed closely by Ireland, Serbia & South Africa.
According to Search Volume data analysed using Mangool’s Keyword Finder tool, Google searches for “Wimbledon” during the 2023 Championships (July 2023) set a new record of 101 million searches, which represents a +49% increase on the 2022 Championships.
Wimbledon Social Media Stats
And as you’d expect, Wimbledon is also pretty popular on social media too. At the time of writing, here’s how many followers the official Wimbledon social media accounts have:
- Facebook: 5.9 Million Followers
- Instagram: 5.3 Million Followers
- Twitter: 4 Million Followers
- Youtube: 2.12 Million Subscribers
In fact, Wimbledon’s social media channels recorded a total of 1.9 billion impressions and 82.3 million engagements during the 2023 Championships and grass court season.
Though perhaps our favourite social media stat about the tournament is this:
Murray Mania: In the last five minutes of the 2013 Men’s Singles final that saw Andy Murray clinch victory over Novak Djokovic, tweets about the match peaked at 400 per second. Now if that isn’t a perfect example of what The Wimbledon Championships is all about, we don’t know what is!
