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From photos of influencers in crisp white linen dresses posing in front of Centre Court’s floral displays to videos promising hacks to beat the queues and secure tickets, the hype around Wimbledon has never been bigger on Instagram and TikTok.

The social media frenzy has sparked concerns Wimbledon is increasingly becoming a tourist event rather than a tennis championships, overrun with influencers using the tournament’s iconic aesthetic to build their profiles and attracting attenders more interested in dressing up and taking photos than watching the games.

Many attenders said they had been inspired by social media posts and that they were coming more to enjoy the experience than for the sport.

Wimbledon has deliberately courted influencers in recent years in a bid to shake off its reputation for exclusivity and gain relevance for a younger generation.

Wimbledon’s director of marketing, Usama Al-Qassab, said the approach was working, with attenders “generally inching about a year younger year on year” over the past decade, now averaging at mid-forties for those who obtain tickets in the ballot and 35 in the queue.

Wimbledon works with content creators in the run-up to the tournament, but most during the event are invited by brands, he said. This year Wimbledon invited 12 to attend the event from countries where it is looking to boost awareness: Japan, Germany and India. In recent years the tournament has seen a “slight growth in international attenders”, to reach 20% of the total, he added.

Although some heritage sports tournaments, such as the Masters golf championship at Augusta National in the US, do not permit cameras or telephones, Wimbledon gave people the opportunity “because it is bucket list”, he said.

Al-Qassab said demand for the event had surged in recent years, with ballot tickets becoming more competitive. The first week this year reached nearly 300,000 visitors, making it busier for attendance than the first week in 2025, which turned out to be a record year.

He added that the All England Club’s planned expansion was intended to respond to the demand. “There is this appetite which we are struggling to [meet] without that opportunity,” he said.

Wimbledon’s growth reflects the explosion in popularity of tennis, with the number of people who play the game globally rising by nearly a quarter in the five years preceding 2024. The sport has been further boosted through cultural moments such as the hit film Challengers starring Zendaya in 2024, and the Tenniscore fashion trend on TikTok and Instagram.

Leah Gillooly, a former Wimbledon umpire who researches sports marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University, said her research into the queue suggested that it has become younger, more international and busier in recent years, and that people are arriving much earlier to gain entry.

“That’s probably driven because of social media now it’s much more widely visible,” she said. “People are talking about how this is an amazing experience almost like being at a festival.”

“There’s accounts on social media you can follow almost live tracking what queue card number you’re up to,” she added, making the queue card “a badge of honour” and heightening the sense that it is “a really desirable thing”.

Joanna Hughston, marketing lead at sports-focused Goat Agency, said brands know “a lot of eyes are on Wimbledon” and invite influencers and content creators to expand their reach in a way traditional sports sponsorship no longer does, she said.

“For better and worse in a way [Wimbledon] has become more of a tourist attraction,” she said. “[It’s] driven by social media and celebrity, fashion, food and the culture that’s happening around Wimbledon itself.”

Sebastian Melrose, a professional racing driver and influencer with 383,000 followers on Instagram, was invited to Wimbledon by Evian. Although he hasn’t watched live tennis before, he felt Wimbledon suited his profile because he considers himself a “high-end creator, [who] works with high-end brands, that visually look good”, with his “quite aesthetic” post from the event reaching 54,000 views – more than his recent post from Le Mans, despite Formula One being his main focus.

Lauren Siegel, who researches the role of social media in driving tourism, said Wimbledon is another example of how “people that may not have been interested in tennis or sports are now a lot more motivated to document that they were there and be part of that peer group or social status”.

She added that Wimbledon matched the “Instagram aesthetic”, including the all-white outfits, strawberries and cream, with its colourful flowers and aspirational connotations.

Mark Borkowski, a sports PR, said Wimbledon had “always been a social event”, and that the era of corporate hospitality, newspaper attention and celebrity spotting in the 1990s had evolved into social media and influencers.

The rise of social media driven interest in tennis is felt courtside, too. Former tennis doubles champion Mike Bryan said: “From the fans, everyone’s taking shots, and are they really watching the match, or are they trying to make their channel look better?”

His brother, Bob Bryan, added: “The energy is a little different, and people are more subdued because they’re capturing the moment instead of being in the moment.”