Revealed: How Challenge Cup Final attendance compares to previous years

Yesterday we saw the first Challenge Cup Final since 1986 without Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and St Helens as Leigh Leopards and Hull KR battled it out for the oldest trophy in rugby league.

Sadly though for fans who don’t often get to enjoy these big occasions, Leigh hadn’t won the trophy since 1971 and Hull KR since 1980, many were held up by an accident on the M1 which meant 20,000 fans were late to the game.

This meant that an attendance projected to be over 60,000 and knocking on the door of 65,000 couldn’t surpass the 60,000 mark at 58,213.

But how does this compare to previous years? We have taken a look back at every attendance since 2000.

In the years before the move to the new Wembley attendances were quite fluid with a low of 62,140 in 2002 and a high of 74,213 in 2005.

However, all broke the 60,000 barrier. The move to the new Wembley saw 80,000 fans in the first two finals and then 85,000 in the 2010 Challenge Cup Final between Leeds and Warrington.

However, since then we have only seen 80,000 once since and that was in 2015 between Leeds and Hull KR.

Every final until 2016 surpassed 70,000 however but since 2017 we haven’t seen that marker passed again.

In fact only one final since then has had over 60,000 fans in 2019. In 2018, we saw the lowest between Catalans Dragons and Warrington Wolves and then last year’s final was only marginally better than that at Tottenham Hotspurs’ Stadium.

This year was the second lowest attendance at the new Wembley for a Challenge Cup Final.

2000: Bradford Bulls 24-18 Leeds Rhinos – 67,247

2001: St Helens 13-6 Bradford Bulls – 68,250

2002: Wigan Warriors 21-12 St Helens – 62,140

2003: Bradford Bulls 22-20 Leeds Rhinos – 71,212

2004: St Helens 32-16 Wigan Warriors – 73,734

2005: Hull FC 25-24 Leeds Rhinos – 74,213

2006: St Helens 42-12 Huddersfield Giants – 65,187

2007: St Helens 30-8 Catalans Dragons – 84,241

2008: St Helens 28-16 Hull FC – 82,821

2009: Warrington Wolves 25-16 Huddersfield Giants – 76,560

2010: Warrington Wolves 30-6 Leeds Rhinos – 85,217

2011: Wigan Warriors 28-18 Leeds Rhinos – 78,482

2012: Warrington Wolves 35-18 Leeds Rhinos – 79,180

2013: Wigan Warriors 16-0 Hull FC – 78,137

2014: Leeds Rhinos 23-10 Castleford Tigers – 77,914

2015: Leeds Rhinos 50-0 Hull KR – 80,140

2016: Hull FC 12-10 Warrington Wolves – 76,235

2017: Hull FC 18-14 Wigan Warriors – 68,525

2018: Catalans Dragons 20-14 Warrington Wolves – 50,672

2019: Warrington Wolves 18-4 St Helens – 62,717

2020: Leeds Rhinos 17-16 Salford Red Devils – Behind Closed Doors

2021: St Helens 26-12 Castleford Tigers – 40,000 (limited capacity due to pandemic)

2022: Wigan Warriors 16-14 Huddersfield Giants – 51,628

2023: Leigh Leopards 17-16 Hull KR – 58,213