As one of the elite European football leagues, the Bundesliga gets to boast of being among the most prestigious competitions in the most popular sport in the world. However, it has a special place among the elite tier by regularly being the pace-setter for attendance.
Where the Bundesliga doesn’t quite size up to some of its peers, however, is beyond its national borders. Many clubs can claim substantial pockets of fans outside of Germany, but the reach compared to the likes of the Premier League and La Liga is comparatively small. Now, the Bundesliga is exploring new ways of reaching new fans.
Memberships and Attendances Remain Record-Setters
The Bundesliga is the most-well-attended league in the world. Better still, the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 boast some of the highest-supported clubs globally. Club membership stats have relayed this for years, but in September 2025, FC Bayern München had an almighty 410,000 members, as reported in this statistical BBC piece.
While not as gaudy, the 230,000 of Borussia Dortmund, 200,000 of FC Schalke 04, and 155,000 of Eintracht Frankfurt are also huge counts on the world stage. The number of memberships greatly outweighs the capacity of each team’s stadium. So, as you’d expect, attendance figures are also rather high.
Across 36 teams from the top two divisions of German football, over 20.9 million tickets were sold, setting a new record for the 2024/25 season. Individual averages see Dortmund top charts with over 81,000 per game, and Bayern München sit not far behind with 75,000 per game.
In Germany, German football commands a huge and devout audience. Still, having one incredibly dominant club may have hampered the league’s ability to sell itself as an entertaining sports product around the world. While changes can’t be made directly to the level of competition, the league can still look to expand in other ways.
New Avenues for Fan Engagement Emerging
Broadcasting deals aren’t the only ways to reach fans these days, with the digital space offering a wealth of accessible opportunities for would-be fans to connect to any club of interest. An emerging field in this regard would be the metaverse. Dedicated virtual spaces and NFTs could become key points of contact for far-flung fans.
More prominently, for now, in the digital arena, however, would be the opportunities presented in online entertainment. Streaming docu-series are being used by teams like Bayern München, but both the league and teams could explore branded products to a greater degree.
After all, at the top casino online UK players can access, branded slots are numerous and span many products. The Walking Dead has several slots, Deal or No Deal is in the game, and RoboCop, Breaking Bad, and The Mummy are all there to bring their products to slot players. A similar venture could help to raise the league’s profile further.
These are entertainment moves that have either been lightly or not at all explored, but could certainly bolster the Bundesliga with more ways for fans around the world to connect to its teams and star players. A Bundesliga version of Drive to Survive, for example, could greatly move the league forward in the US, for example.
Where the Bundesliga, or rather, the Deutsche Fußball Liga, has been pushing forward into digital entertainment is on YouTube. The video platform is used by some 2.7 billion monthly active users. So, the DFL has teamed up with host Mark Goldbridge to broadcast 20 live matches on his channel in 2025/26. The first collected 500,000 viewers.
A team loaded with world-class players and with a huge local supporter base, the Bundesliga could become much larger internationally if it ups its efforts to connect to fans beyond Germany in more creative and modern ways.
