Labor leader Chris Minns will lead his party to form the next NSW government, ending 12 years of Liberal National coalition rule in the state.
ABC election analyst Antony Green said there was an early two-party preferred swing of around 6.4 per cent.
"I can confidently say, the Labor Party will form government, we do not know whether it will be a majority or minority, but the swings are now consistent," he told ABC TV.
"The coalition is struggling to get above 27 at this stage. That is not going to turn around, Labor will have more seats in parliament."
Premier Dominic Perrottet had sought a fourth term for the coalition, while Mr Minns was determined to end Labor's 12 years in the political wilderness.
Treasurer Matt Kean said the odds had been stacked against a coalition victory.
"It would be an historic victory because it hasn't been done before, four terms," he told the Nine Network on Saturday.
"So fighting the tide of history is like fighting gravity. The deck is stacked against us.
"It is going to be Mount Everest."
Labor needs 47 seat to form a majority 58th NSW government.
The coalition governed for two years in minority with 46 seats, while Labor has 38, with nine crossbenchers, including three Greens MPs.
The leaders have led the charge on the campaign trail this week, visiting dozens of electorates in a frenzied blitz to shore up seats across the state.
The premier voted in Beecroft on Saturday morning, accompanied by wife Helen and daughter Celeste, as school volunteers sold cupcakes and sausages to punters.
Mr Minns voted in his ultra-marginal southern Sydney seat of Kogarah, flanked by wife Anna and their three sons, and promising a fresh vision for the state.
"Vote for a fresh start for NSW, for a team that's got a plan for essential services, for our schools and for our hospitals, who's going to stand up against privatisation and really put the people of NSW first," he said.
Both leaders have campaigned hard in vital seats in Sydney's west, where a third of NSW voters live and many electorates are on a knife edge.
The latest Newspoll showed Labor leading the coalition 54.5 to 45.5 on a two-party preferred basis, putting Labor on a path to claim the 9 seats it needs to form majority government.
Earlier on Saturday Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lent his support to Mr Minns' pitch for premier, campaigning in the Liberal-held seat of Ryde before casting his own vote at a booth in Sydney's innerwest.
A string of retiring senior Liberal ministers bailing out before the state election showed the Perrottet government didn't even have confidence in itself, he said.
"It's time for a change of government," he told reporters.
Former NSW Liberal minister Andrew Constance predicted it would be the night of the cross bench.
"We're going to see the largest crossbench I think, elected in the state's history tonight," he told Nine.
A raft of minor party and independent candidates will play an important part in the next government, with the Greens and teals vowing to hold the government to account on climate and other reforms.
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