2022 USWNT attendance best since 2019

While the USWNT’s TV ratings are down 10% in 2022, their rise has not. USWNT attendance in 2022 was higher than 2021. In fact, it was their best year in the stands since 2019. And so is 2020, when they were able to play 8 home games ahead of the global COVID shutdown.

2022 USWNT attendance

Here’s how the crowds break down:

Best attendance since 2019

In 2022, the USWNT totaled 164,633 fans over eleven games. That is an average of 14,967 fans per match. That’s the most since 2019, when they tallied a total of 376,834 fans over 15 home games after a Women’s World Cup title for an average of 25,122 per game.

USWNT attendance in 2022 was also 18% higher than in 2021 when they averaged 12,703 per game over 14 home games. However, it is surprisingly still 30% lower than the USMNT’s average this year, their worst attendance since 2006. But perhaps more importantly, it is higher than at the same stage in the previous cycle, when they averaged 14,064 per game in 2018 had.

Location variety

While it is well documented how US Soccer allows the USMNT to play all of their matches in the same selected stadiums, that has not been a problem for the USWNT lately. In 2022 they only played in one stadium where they made their appearance in 2021. That was Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City. Additionally, only two of the stadiums they played in in 2022 were used in 2020: Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA and Red Bull Arena in the New York area. That means that seven of the eleven games played by the USWNT were played at venues they had not appeared in years.

Women’s World Cup

Just as the USMNT sees an increase in attendance the year after the World Cup, the USWNT usually sees it in the year of the Women’s World Cup. In 2011 there was an increase of 100% compared to 2010, from 5,784 to 11,645. The jump in 2015 was even bigger, as it rose a whopping 157% from 10,791 to 27,766. And in 2019 it was more of the same as the increase was 79% from 14,064 in 2018 to 25,122 the following year.

The Women’s World Cup is next year in Australia and New Zealand. If they make it to the three-peat, there’s no telling how big the crowd will be when they have their victory run.