A list of the top 30 most attended IIHF World Championships (out of 87 total). The 2024 tournament, in Prague and Ostrava (Czech Republic), holds the record for overall attendance and the record for average spectators per game. Not included are the Olympic tournaments, which though they are run as an IIHF tournament, have been separate from the World Championships since 1972.
Despite reluctance in some circles to have such a tournament in Olympic years, three of the six most attended World Championships overall have taken place on years that coincided with the holding of a best-on-best tournament, either the Olympics (2010 and 2014) or the World Cup of Hockey (2004).
It should be considered that because of a changing pool-size of teams through the years, the number of games contested at the IIHF World Championships can range from 32 in 1979 to 64 in 2012 and beyond, therefore "attendance per game" is an equally important statistic to measure the success of a given tournament. Eleven tournaments have had averages over 9,000 spectators per game, and seven have topped the 10,000 mark.
In an effort to broaden the sport's appeal, the number of top division teams was increased from a mere 8 (as late as 1991) to 16 (starting in 1998), leading to an influx of lesser teams that could negatively impact average attendance. To combat this, some organizers have aggressively pushed the sale of day passes that bundle popular games with less sought-after ones.
The Czech Republic hosted three of the top five most attended tournaments. Finland hosted seven of the top 30 most attended tournaments. There are two countries with five of the top 30 most attended tournaments: Russia (including two tournaments held in the Soviet Union) and Sweden. Germany hosted three of the top 30 most attended tournaments, Latvia and Slovakia – two each. There are 6 other countries who have hosted the championships at least once, and are represented on the top 30.
The lowest attendance was at the 2021 edition in Latvia, where fans were banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic except for one game attended by 934 people. Not counting this, the lowest recorded attendance was at the 1953 edition in Switzerland, with 53,000 total spectators. Some tournaments before 1950 do not have attendance figures available.[1]
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Czech Republic †
Germany & 
France 
Belarus 
Finland 
Denmark 
Canada 
Slovakia 
Sweden 
Latvia 
Russia 
Switzerland 
Soviet Union †
Austria 
