PREM crowds show early promise from last season with derbies upon us

Lies, damned lies, and statistics. American author Mark Twain wouldn’t have had rugby in mind when he popularised that phrase. However, you can easily apply it to how 2025/26 Gallagher PREM attendances can be framed, two rounds into the 18-game regular season.

Each of the 10 clubs has had their first home game of the season, and five have attracted bigger gates than 12 months ago, four are down, and one has stayed the same.

Accumulatively, 3,171 more spectators attended their club’s first home game this season compared to 2024/25, which is a 2.7% increase year-on-year.

Newcastle’s first home crowd almost doubled following the Red Bull takeover, with 10,210 fans watching their defeat to Saracens, as the league kicked off on a Thursday night for the first time in its history. In 2024/25, Newcastle, then known as the Falcons, got barely over 5,000 for the visit of Bristol.

And Bristol also managed to pull in far more punters (3,687 to be precise) for Louis Rees-Zammit’s try-scoring league debut for the Bears, against Leicester. The Bears kicked off this campaign with a home crowd of 20,976, the best in the first two rounds of the PREM, whereas 17,109 attended the clash with local rivals Gloucester the previous September.

PREM attendances – first home fixtures

Bath, Gloucester, and Harlequins were the other clubs to experience an increase in attendance, while Sale, Saracens, Exeter and Leicester all suffered attendance drops.

The Sharks were the worst affected of the lot, with the newly-named CorpAcq Stadium less than half full for their first home game against Gloucester, one of the better-supported away teams. Owners Simon and Michelle Orange, along with Ged Mason, will be hoping that Derby Weekend, which pits them against fellow northerners Newcastle Red Bulls, will deliver a quick antidote.

Saracens’ rebrand as ‘The Original Team in North London’ has been very well received stylistically. But will it translate into something tangible, such as increased gate receipts? Obviously, it’s still early days, but a crowd of just 6,609 against a team as entertaining as Bristol is very disappointing.

While the picture looks largely positive when comparing home games from last season to this, taking corresponding matches into consideration paints a different picture.

Sometimes it can be disingenuous to do this, as in one season, Leicester and Bath, for example, might play each other over the festive period, when attendances are traditionally high, or they could meet late in the season when play-off places are at stake.

Alternatively, the fixture might fall in the first week of January, a typically unpopular slot for fans who are spent up, financially and emotionally, after Christmas.

However, putting this to one side, comparing like-for-like fixtures after two rounds isn’t as positive as the first home gate scenario, especially for the backers of Exeter, Leicester, Saracens, and Gloucester, who’ve experienced significant drops. Using this metric across the league as a whole, there has been an 8.6% decline in attendance from last season to this one.

Tigers got nearly 26,000 for their home game with Harlequins in Round 15 last season, but only 16,967 in Round 2 this term. The push for the play-offs was obviously a significant driver in helping to swell the crowd to near capacity back in April. But questions will be asked as to why on earth 8,882 punters have gone missing at the start of a new era under Geoff Parling.

However, with Derby Weekend almost upon us, Lions stars making their first appearances of the campaign, and advance ticket sales for the Premier League final at record levels, the signs are that things will pick up quickly as the season’s narrative unfolds.

PREM Attendances – corresponding fixtures

*Attendance figures from PREM Rugby, except Saracens v Bristol, which was sourced from The Rugby Paper.