For the first time in football history, more than 10 clubs across Europe sold at least one million tickets each for league games in the same season, and five of the 11 who achieved it were from the Premier League in 2016-17.

West Ham stormed into that elite group in seventh place as they took up residence at the London Stadium.

Barcelona sold most tickets for their league games, or almost 1.49m at an average of more than 78,000 per La Liga game and were following in total aggregate sales by Manchester United (1.43m or 75,290 per game).

Barcelona sold the highest number of league tickets at the Nou Camp last season

Manchester United came second behind Barcelona after selling a total of 1.13million tickets

Borussia Dortmund in third place on aggregate (1.35m) actually had a bigger average than the two clubs above them (79,653 fans per game) but they play only 17 home games per season in the 18-team Bundesliga as opposed to 19 home games in the other major European leagues.

The 11 clubs in the ‘million ticket’ club are detailed in the accompanying table and is explored in more depth in a new report, published.

UEFA’s ‘benchmarking’ report is an in-depth look at off-pitch club football ‘health’ in the continent’s 55 nations, with the European governing body considering everything from finances to social media popularity to attendances, kit deals and use of agents among other things.

Borussia Dortmund in third place actually had a bigger average than the two clubs above them

Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Arsenal followed in aggregate league match ticket sales

Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Arsenal followed Dortmund in aggregate league match ticket sales ahead of West Ham. Scottish giants Celtic came next, ahead of Schalke of Germany, then Manchester City and Liverpool as the others selling more than 1m seats.

The report paints a remarkable picture of football fandom in England in terms of huge numbers of people watching games at different levels.

‘The 2016-17 attendance figures of top domestic leagues totalled just under a hundred million,’ it says. ‘Compared with 2015-16, total attendances were down 1 per cent, primarily due to the mix of clubs promoted and relegated in England and Germany.

West Ham entered the list in seventh after their move to the London Stadium last season

‘Attendances were generally stable across Europe, with 18 countries reporting a year-on-year change of less then 5 per cent. While five leagues reported a significant increase of more than 15 per cent, there were eight leagues, all in eastern Europe, that reported a notable decrease of more than 15 per cent.’

Of the best 10 attended divisions across Europe - at all levels, not just top divisions - three of them were in England last season. The Premier League was at No1 in total ticket sales (13,607,420) with the Championship at No3 (11,086,368), beaten only by the Bundesliga at No2 (12,703,896). England’s third-tier League One (4,373,496) is No9 on the list, selling more tickets last season than the top divisions of most European nations, the ‘Big 5’ and the Netherlands aside.

Tickets sold for league games 2016-17 1. Barcelona 1,482,646 2. Man Utd 1,430,510 3. Borussia Dortmund 1,354,101 4. Real Madrid 1,319,094 5. Bayern Munich 1,275,000 6. Arsenal 1,139,183 7. West Ham 1,082,468 8. Celtic 1,039,794 9. Schalke 1,031,951 10. Man City 1,026,361 11. Liverpool 1,007,304 Advertisement