By Scott Bailey in Sydney

Test cricket in Australia has officially never been more popular, with this summer beating Bradman-era records to top 40,000 fans per day for the first time.

At a time when fears remain over the future of Tests, officials will this week confirm data that shows nearly 838,000 people attended the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

That number alone made the series the fourth most attended in Australian history, but it is even more impressive considering two matches ended within three days.

The average of 41,894 people per day of Test cricket is by far the highest in Australian history, beating out the 1936-37 Ashes when Don Bradman was in his prime.

Attendance numbers from that era are considered somewhat unreliable, but the approximate average of 36,500 fans per day had stood as a record for nearly 90 years.

In the modern era the 2013-14 Ashes had previously been the best-attended summer in Australia, attracting nearly 36,400 people per day.

But that has now also been well topped by Australia’s 3-1 triumph in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“It’s so much fun,” Australia’s captain Pat Cummins said.

“We all grew up watching Test cricket, loving it, so to be right there in the mix, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world for these couple of months.

“Wherever we went around the country, it was so well supported. It felt like everyone was talking about it.

“Last week in Melbourne I had never seen anything like it, and it was much the same in Sydney.”

Cricket Australia’s crowd numbers were significantly boosted by the Boxing Day Test going five days, with a record 373,691 people turning out across the match.

Optus Stadium also opened its doors for far greater numbers in Perth, with the first two days attracting an extra 10,000 people than the WACA could at its peak.

Sydney was also a perfect storm for officials, with the 2025 calendar meaning the Test was sold out for the first three days between Friday and Sunday.

The lively bowler-friendly wicket then meant the match wrapped up before a back-to-work Monday, when numbers would likely have dropped.

But crowd numbers were impacted by rain in Brisbane, where only a combined 10,600 fans attended the last two days.

More than anything, the numbers also show a change in demographic in Australia.

This series broke the stranglehold England visits had on crowd records, with this the only non-Ashes summer in the top 10 of most-attended Tests in Australian history.

MOST ATTENDED AUSTRALIAN TEST SUMMERS ON RECORD

(BY DAILY AVERAGES)

2024-25: 41,894

1936-37: 36,500 (approximate figure)

2013-14: 36,392

2017-18: 34,669

2010-11: 33,959