Following the weekend’s Challenge Cup quarter-final stages, the attendances are in with one tie standing out above the rest.
It’s no surprise that the first Hull derby in the Cup since 1986 and with the top two sides in Super League facing off, it was always going to draw in a massive crowd.
A total of 20,226 fans turned up to the MKM Stadium for Saturday afternoon’s fixture, which saw Hull KR beat their local rivals Hull FC 32-16, and that’s the biggest quarter-final attendance in the competition since 1989.
Rovers took 3,700 fans of their own across to west Hull and they took home the bragging rights with them, progressing to the semi-finals, where they will meet Catalans Dragons.
The second highest attendance of the weekend came at Sunday’s game between Warrington Wolves and St Helens.
With two rivals taking each other on in a Cup quarter-final, you’d expect a large crowd.
Just over 10,000 fans turned up at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and saw the home side taking a 20-12 victory.
In fact, three of the weekend’s ties ended with the same scoreline with just the Hull derby being the outlier.
Wakefield Trinity were aiming for their own Challenge Cup record on Friday night as they hosted Leigh Leopards.
They were hoping to beat the 8,005 fans that turned up in 2000 when they faced Bradford Bulls, their highest Cup attendance in the summer era.
However, it was the away fans who left the DIY Kitchens Stadium the happiest as Leigh took a 20-12 away victory over Trinity.
Unfortunately, they fell short of that, with 6,125 in attendance at the match, but still an admirable figure when compared to the previous round’s numbers.
Catalans Dragons’ attendance for their tie against Salford Red Devils is unknown but the Dragons have been averaging at around 9,000 so far in 2025’s Super League.
Challenge Cup quarter-final attendances
Wakefield Trinity 12-20 Leigh Leopards – 6,125
Catalans Dragons 20-12 Salford Red Devils – N/A
Hull FC 16-32 Hull KR – 20,226
Warrington Wolves 20-12 St Helens – 10,114
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Patrick Tomlinson
April 7, 2025 at 1:16 pm
Considering Warrington v Leeds Was about 10.5k the other week, no way was there 10k there yesterday. The seating was barely a third full.
Eric T Cat
April 7, 2025 at 4:10 pm
Crowd sizes are hardly impressive, there are 300,000 people in and around Hull, a 25,586 seater stadium, first and second in the league, and still couldn’t fill the stadium. Warrington versus Saints, not too far from one another, 15,300 seater stadium, great teams, huge catchment area between Liverpool and Manchester, surrounded by major towns, and 2/3 rds full?
It’s not the product on the field, both matches were absorbing hard fought contests, but something is keeping bums off seats. It needs fixing! Contrast it to Union, they pack out stadia to watch the most dire of offerings, as my ex-wife said “Is Rugby Union for those too old, too far, not quick or good enough to play League?”. Three matches watching League on the telly she picked herself a team, wanted a shirt, and when were we going? She watched one match of Union, I’d taken her kids to play frisbee, run off some energy, she was so bored she couldn’t work out what was wrong with it. After I explained the history of the sports, her question from above, she decided not to watch that again.
The RFL, IMG, and clubs need to find that missing audience so, like the third test, matches getvsold out regularly!