PWR attendances surge 23% as Women's World Cup legacy fuels record-breaking season

Premiership Women’s Rugby posted a 23.4 per cent year-on-year rise in average attendances across its nine clubs during the 2024/25 season, the league announced, with social media views climbing 174 per cent to 111 million across YouTube, Meta and TikTok.

Now operating under the JAECOO PWR branding, the league also saw its social following grow by 132 per cent over the past 12 months — figures that executive chair Genevieve Shore described as encouraging but contextually significant.

“It’s been a really encouraging year for the league,” Shore said. “We can see growth across so many different areas of the business, and that gives us confidence that the work we’re doing is truly connecting with fans. But I think it’s important that we are also honest about the context around those numbers. We had an unusually high starting point coming into this season, and so we are especially pleased that we can continue growing at this scale.”

The season followed the best-attended Women’s Rugby World Cup ever staged, hosted in England, where John Mitchell’s Red Roses lifted the trophy in front of a world record crowd at Allianz Stadium. That momentum carried directly into the domestic campaign, driving an immediate uptick in both attendance and wider interest in the competition.

On the pitch, Saracens ended a four-year wait for a domestic title with victory over Trailfinders Women in the final at the Twickenham Stoop in June.

The growth has also been sustained despite the departure of Ilona Maher, the most-followed rugby player on social media, whose arrival at Bristol Bears in the 2024/25 season had previously generated a significant spike in global interest in the league.

Looking ahead, Shore set out an ambitious agenda for the coming campaign. “Next season is about going further. We want more fans coming through the gates. We want to engage more people digitally. We want to keep listening to supporters and acting on what they tell us. We should be proud of what we’ve achieved this year. But we’re not going to stand still.”

The new PWR season opens on Friday 21 November when Loughborough Lightning host Trailfinders Women. The competition will pause between April and May for the 2027 Guinness Women’s Six Nations, with the final scheduled for Saturday 26 June at a venue yet to be confirmed.