The Biggest Soccer Stadium in the World, and the Ten Behind It

Last updated: August 2026

Key Takeaways

• The biggest soccer stadium in the world is the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, with a listed capacity of 113,281.
• Guinness World Records still lists the same stadium at 150,000 — a figure from before its 2014 renovation, which is why sources disagree so widely.
• The largest in Europe is Camp Nou at 99,354, and it is mid-renovation with a planned final capacity of around 105,000.
• The largest crowd ever at a football match was at the Maracanã in 1950 — 173,850 paying spectators by the Guinness count, with other records putting the total near 200,000.

Stadium capacity sounds like it should be a simple fact, and it is one of the least stable numbers in football. Grounds are renovated, safe-standing sections change the arithmetic, seats are added for finals and removed afterwards, and reference works update at different speeds. Ask three sources for the biggest soccer stadium in the world and you can get three answers.

Here is the current top ten by listed capacity, along with an explanation of exactly why the figures move around.

«Capacity is a licensing number, not a measurement. It changes when the safety certificate changes, which is why a ground can ‘grow’ by four thousand seats without anyone laying a brick.» — Anthony Molina, FOOTBOLNO.COM

The Answer: Rungrado 1st of May Stadium

The largest football stadium in the world is the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium on Rungra Island in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its listed capacity is 113,281.

It opened in 1989, hosts the North Korea national team and the April 25 club side, and is used for mass gymnastics displays as much as for football. Its roof is often described as resembling a magnolia blossom, which from the air it genuinely does.

The complication is that Guinness World Records still lists it at 150,000, a figure recorded as of March 2014. That was its capacity before a renovation, and the entry has not been revised. Both numbers are real, they just describe the stadium at different points in time — which is the single most common reason capacity lists disagree with each other.

The Ten Biggest Soccer Stadiums

Just outside it: Estadio Más Monumental in Buenos Aires (85,018), Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata (85,000), the Santiago Bernabéu (83,186), Croke Park in Dublin (82,300) and Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund (81,365).

Camp Nou Is a Moving Target

Camp Nou has been Europe’s largest ground for decades at 99,354, and that number is about to change.

The stadium is being rebuilt as part of the Espai Barça project, with a planned final capacity of around 105,000 — which would make it the first European ground to pass six figures. It reopened in November 2025 after roughly 900 days away, initially at a much reduced capacity, with the upper tiers being completed in stages.

Until that work finishes, quoting a single number for Camp Nou is guesswork. Any list you read is either using the pre-renovation figure, the current reduced one, or the planned final one, and most do not say which.

The Biggest on Each Continent

A few of these come with an asterisk in ordinary conversation. The Cotton Bowl is an American football stadium that hosts soccer; FNB Stadium — Soccer City to most people, from the 2010 World Cup — is the genuine article. Croke Park in Dublin, at 82,300, is a Gaelic games ground that occasionally stages football and would otherwise sit high on the European list.

Where the Giants Actually Are

Run your eye down the top ten and the geography is not what most people expect. Western Europe, which has the richest clubs and the most-watched leagues in the world, has two entries: Camp Nou and Wembley. Africa has three, Asia has three, North America has two.

That is not an accident. Europe’s biggest clubs have spent the last thirty years rebuilding for revenue per seat rather than raw numbers — hospitality boxes, wider seats, better sightlines, more concourse space. Every one of those improvements costs capacity. A ground that held 80,000 on terraces holds 60,000 as an all-seater with modern facilities, and it earns considerably more money doing it.

The very large stadiums, by contrast, tend to be national rather than club venues, built for tournaments, ceremonies or state occasions where a one-off crowd matters more than fifty match days a year. Rungrado, FNB Stadium, the New Administrative Capital Stadium, Lusail and Bukit Jalil are all national stadiums. They fill for a World Cup, an opening ceremony or a cup final, and sit largely empty the rest of the time.

The Biggest Club Grounds

If you restrict the question to stadiums a club actually plays in every other week, the list looks different again:

Signal Iduna Park is the outlier on that list and the reason is its south terrace, the Südtribüne: nearly 25,000 standing spectators in a single stand. Standing capacity is roughly double seated capacity for the same floor area, which is exactly why the biggest grounds of the terraced era held numbers no all-seater will reach again.

That is also why the Bundesliga sits high on capacity tables while its stadiums are not unusually large in footprint. German grounds kept standing areas when England removed them, and the arithmetic follows.

Why the Numbers Disagree So Much

Five things move a capacity figure without a single seat being built.

Renovation. The clearest case is Rungrado: 150,000 before its rebuild, 113,281 after. Old figures survive in reference works for years.

Seated versus total. A ground with standing areas has a higher total capacity than its seat count. Signal Iduna Park holds 81,365 with its standing terrace, and considerably fewer for UEFA matches, which must be all-seater.

Safety certificates. Capacity is set by the local licensing authority, and it can be cut for sightline, exit or structural reasons and restored later. Nothing physical changes.

Temporary seating. Finals, Olympics and one-off events add stands that come down afterwards. Figures quoted during a tournament are often not the permanent number.

What counts as a football stadium. Multi-purpose venues that stage football occasionally are included on some lists and not others, which is why cricket grounds and NFL stadiums appear and disappear from the top ten depending on where you look.

The practical rule: treat any capacity figure as valid for a specific date, and check when it was published.

The Biggest Crowd Ever Recorded

Capacity is what a stadium is licensed for. Attendance is what actually turned up, and the record for that belongs to the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro.

At the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup, Brazil against Uruguay, the crowd was recorded at 173,850 paying spectators — the figure Guinness recognises as the largest attendance at a football match. Other counts of the same game put the official attendance at 199,854 and the real total closer to 210,000, because a stadium with vast standing terraces does not count people the way a modern all-seater does.

Uruguay won 2–1. In Brazil the defeat is still known as the Maracanazo.

That record is not going to be broken. The Maracanã today holds 73,139 — less than half of the crowd it once took — because terraces became seats, and a seated spectator takes roughly twice the space of a standing one. Every modern all-seater ground on the list above is subject to the same limit, which is why 1950 is likely to stand as the high-water mark of stadium attendance permanently.

Building One

A ground of this size is a civil engineering project rather than a sports facility, and the field inside it is a rounding error on the budget — the cost of building a soccer field covers what the playing surface itself runs.

The pitch inside all of them is the same, incidentally. Whatever the capacity, the penalty box at Rungrado is exactly the same size as the one on your local park pitch, and the eleven players on each side do not change either. Only the number of people watching does.

Common Questions

What is the biggest soccer stadium in the world? The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, with a listed capacity of 113,281.

Why do some sources say 150,000? Because Guinness World Records lists the pre-renovation capacity of the same stadium, recorded as of March 2014. The stadium was renovated and the current listed figure is 113,281.

What is the biggest soccer stadium in Europe? Camp Nou in Barcelona, at 99,354. Its ongoing renovation is planned to take it to around 105,000, which would make it the first European ground above 100,000.

What is the biggest stadium in England? Wembley, at 90,000. The largest club ground is Old Trafford at 76,000.

What is the biggest stadium in Germany? Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, at 81,365 — a figure that includes its standing terrace and drops for all-seater UEFA fixtures.

What is the biggest soccer stadium in the United States? The Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas at 92,100 is the largest venue on the list that stages soccer, though it is primarily an American football ground.

What was the largest crowd ever at a football match? The 1950 World Cup deciding match at the Maracanã: 173,850 paying spectators by the Guinness count, with other records putting the total near 200,000.

What is the biggest club stadium in the world? Camp Nou, at 99,354, home of Barcelona. Behind it are Estadio Más Monumental in Buenos Aires (85,018) and the Santiago Bernabéu (83,186).

Why does Signal Iduna Park hold more than bigger-looking grounds? Because of its standing terrace. Standing spectators take roughly half the space of seated ones, so a stand that would hold 12,000 seats holds close to 25,000 people standing.

Will any stadium beat Rungrado? Not soon. Modern grounds are all-seater and built to safety standards that cap them well below the terraced giants of the past, and the trend in new stadium design is towards better sightlines and hospitality rather than raw capacity.

Anthony Molina writes about soccer technique, gear and coaching at FOOTBOLNO.