Despite the spectacular fireworks, Sydney's New Year's Eve crowd appears to have been a damp squib.

Early attendance figures suggest the number of people who came to the city to watch the New Year's Eve display might have been half that of last year.

Not so packed: crowd estimates for the fireworks are at levels not seen for a decade. Credit:Steven Siewert

Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore would only say "over a million" people came into the city on Wednesday night.

That appears to be significantly lower than the city's last-minute projection of 1.6 million people, and the attendance figure might have been half last year's estimated record-breaking crowd of 2 million.