THE AFL was the fourth-best attended professional sporting league on the planet in 2012, beating out the Major League Baseball and Spain's La Liga.

An average 32,748 fans attended AFL matches, which actually represented a decline from the 36,428 the code attracted in 2011.

The decrease resulted in the AFL dropping from third in 2011 to fourth in the rankings behind the English Premier League, which attracted an average 34,602 fans per game in the 2011-12 season.

The National Football League took out top spot with an average 67,591 spectators per game, up from 67,394 a year earlier.

Germany's Bundesliga surprisingly came in second with 45,116 average fans per game in 2011-12 - the highest average ever for that league - up from 42,673 during the prior season.

The National Hockey League - which is in danger of having no season in 2012-13 due to a labor dispute - attracts the largest crowds of the indoor sports, with an attendance of 17,455 in 2011-12.

It finished just ahead of the National Basketball Association (17,274).

Two sports that have seen increases in average attendance year-on-year are Major League Baseball and the Canadian Football League.

MLB came in fifth with an average attendance of 30,895, up from 30,366 a year earlier. The CFL sits seventh with an average of 27,882, compared to 27,192 previously.

Sixth place went to Spain's La Liga, with an average attendance of 28,462, down from 29,128 the year before.



The report came from Sportingintelligence.com.

Originally published as AFL crowds top most of the world