The million
The fifth season was the one at which the Big Bash League stopped being an experiment. Total attendance across 35 matches reached 1,030,495, the first time an Australian domestic competition had passed a million, and on 2 January 2016 the Melbourne derby at the Melbourne Cricket Ground drew 80,883, the largest crowd recorded for a domestic cricket match anywhere in the world. Melbourne Stars won that game by seven wickets.
The structure was unchanged from the previous three seasons: thirty-two league matches from 17 December, eight per side, then two semi-finals and a final at the ground of the higher-placed qualifier.
Sydney Thunder
Sydney Thunder had been the competition's standing joke. They lost all eight league matches in 2012-13, seven of eight in 2013-14, and finished seventh in 2014-15. They had won five of 31 league games in four seasons. Under Michael Hussey's captaincy and with Usman Khawaja, Shane Watson, Jacques Kallis and Andre Russell in the side, they won four of eight and squeezed into fourth place.
Adelaide Strikers, who won seven of eight, were the best team of the league stage for the second season running, and lost at home in the semi-final for the second season running. Sydney Thunder chased down 160 at Adelaide Oval with 14 balls in hand, Khawaja making 104 not out. In the other semi-final Melbourne Stars beat Perth Scorchers by seven wickets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Kevin Pietersen taking the award.
The final
The final was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 24 January. Melbourne Stars made 176 for 9. Sydney Thunder reached 181 for 7 with three balls remaining; Khawaja again took the match award, having made hundreds in both the semi-final and earlier in the season. It was Thunder's first title, at the fifth attempt, and the first Big Bash League final Melbourne Stars had reached.
Chris Lynn was the leading run-scorer with 378 for Brisbane Heat and was named player of the tournament, though the Heat finished sixth. Clint McKay of Sydney Thunder took the most wickets with 18. Nathan Lyon's 5 for 23 and Samuel Badree's 5 for 22 were the best returns of the season, and the competition recorded its first ten-wicket win.
Where it left the competition
Five seasons had produced five different champions, and none of the five had topped the table. The finals system, in which two semi-finals and a final decided everything, was beginning to look thin for a tournament that was now selling out large grounds. Expansion followed: the league stage grew to ten matches a side in 2017-18 and to fourteen in 2018-19, and a five-team finals series replaced the semi-finals in 2019-20.