Report: NWSL attendance drops 5% in 2025

The NWSL's 182-game regular season in 2025 drew an average of 10,669 fans, which was down 5% from last year's record high, according to a report by the Sports Business Journal.

The Portland Thorns FC passed last year's leader, Angel City FC, with a league-best average of 18,173 fans per match. By contrast, the San Diego Wave saw the biggest drop in falling 26% to 13,427 in their first season without the retired Alex Morgan, who is now part of the team's ownership group.

The Wave led the NWSL in attendance just two years ago, but their attendance is down 35% since then despite qualifying for the playoffs in 2025.

The NWSL's 2025 season attendance was close to even with attendance figures from two years ago, with eight of the 15 NWSL franchises seeing a year-over-year decline from 2024. Of those, five experienced double-digit drops, according to the report.

It is a similar decline from the 5% drop that Major League Soccer saw for its 2025 regular season schedule.

On the positive side, the NJ/NY Gotham FC, North Carolina Courage, Washington Spirit and Orlando Pride all set new franchise records for single-season attendance, while seven of the 12 teams that have been in the league for more than two seasons were still up from their 2023 attendance figures.

--Field Level Media