The 12 EFL Championship clubs drawing the smallest crowds in 2025/26 (Ranked) | OneFootball

The second tier continues to attract excellent attendances, but here are the 12 clubs who attract the smallest crowds in the division.

The EFL Championship continues to attract healthy crowds for matches, but here are the 12 teams who make up the bottom half of the division's attendance league table.

With an average home attendance of 22,144 over the course of the 2025-26 season, crowds in the EFL Championship have shown an increase of 140 on the 2024-25 season. This may not be the sort of growth that the EFL will have been hoping for, but with ticket prices as high as they are and a cost of living crisis ongoing, being able to attract an average home attendance of well over 20,000 in the second tier demonstrates that the health of the game in England can very much be seen in its strength in depth.

At the top of the Championship attendance league table are champions Coventry City, who were the only team able to attract more than 30,000 to their home matches. But our focus today is on the bottom half of that league table. These are the twelve clubs who occupy the bottom half of the Championship's attendance league table.

It's worth pointing out that the attendance figures released for matches will seldom represent the number of people actually inside a ground on any given Saturday. The figures released assume that all season ticket holders to be present, even if they're not.

12 ? ? Sheffield Wednesday - 23,199

Given the season they had on the pitch, it says something for the loyalty of Sheffield Wednesday fans that Hillsborough wasn't empty for pretty much every home match throughout the 2025-26 season. The Owls failed to win a single home league match until the last day of the regular season, and finished a staggering 51 points from safety, having been relegated before the end of February.

Their average home attendance for 2025-26 was 3,500 down on the previous season, but given the deep unhappiness with the regime of Dejphon Chansiri at the start of the season and the team's subsequent performance on the pitch, it is a little surprising that they didn't fall by more than they did, and a 33,750 full house for that final weekend win against West Bromwich Albion demonstrated the potential of the club if managed properly.

11 ? ? Hull City - 21,400

Hull City have been the Championship's surprise team of the season. Having only avoided relegation on the final weekend of the 2024-25 season, the Tigers lifted themselves all the way into the play-off places under Sergej Jakirovic, and have now booked themselves a place at Wembley in the play-off final following a sensational 2-0 win at Millwall in second leg of their semi-final.

Slightly surprisingly, this hasn't been reflected in much of an increase on the season before. Hull averaged 21,323 in the 2024-25 season, meaning a modest average increase of 77 people over the course of the 2025-26 season.

10 ? ? Portsmouth - 20,120

Portsmouth struggled for much of the 2025-26 season before a decent run at the end of the season lifted them to 18th place in the Championship and safety. Crowds fell from an average of 20,263 the previous season, but with the capacity of Fratton Park being just 20,688, it remains pretty much at capacity for every match.

9 ? ? Charlton Athletic - 20,066

Following promotion to the Championship via the play-offs at the end of the 2024-25 season, the aim for Charlton Athletic for 2025-26 was to survive at this level, and they managed it, finishing 19th in the table. Promotion was reflected in their attendance figures. An average home gate of 20,066 represented an increase of a third on the previous season, when an average of 15,255 watched them get promotion from League One.

8 ? ? Watford - 18,613

It was another mediocre Championship season for the Hornets, who finished two places lower than last season, in 16th place in the table, following a disastrous run which saw them win just one of their last 11 games of the season. Attendances fell from an average of 19,379 the season before, a reflection on the ongoing dissatisfaction with the way in which the Pozzos are running the club.

7 ? ? Millwall - 17,135

Defeat in the play-off semi-finals to Hull City shouldn't detract from what an excellent season Millwall had. They finished third in the table and were still in the hunt for an automatic promotion place until the final day of the regular season, and this was an increase in attendances on the year before. They rose by more than 10% on the previous season's 15,497, a testament to the superb work carried out by manager Alex Neil over the course of the season.

6 ? ? Preston North End - 16,813

2025-26 marked Preston North End's 11th consecutive season in the Championship, but the club still seems unable to make that big push towards promotion. 16th place in the table was a better finish than the 20th that they managed at the end of 2024-25, but this season brought an increase of 300 on the 16,505 that they managed last time around.

5 ? ? Swansea City - 16,706

Swansea City find themselves in a very similar position to Preston North End, long-term inmates who haven't looked much like challenging for promotion in recent years. They finished 11th in the table last season and 11th in the table this season, but unlike Preston their average attendance of 16,706 was an increase of almost 8% on last season's average of 15,499.

4 ? ? Queens Park Rangers - 16,672

Completing a treble of long-term mid-table Championship clubs are Queens Park Rangers, who marked their 11th consecutive season in this division with an underwhelming 11th-placed finish. But like Swansea, QPR also finished in the same final position as they did last season and had a small bump up in their average home attendances this season, from 15,826 the season before. The relatively small size of Loftus Road, which holds just 18,360, is a slightly limiting factor on how much the club would be able to grow their crowds in the future.

3 ? ? Blackburn Rovers - 14,993

Blackburn Rovers were another club to suffer a fall in attendances this season, down from 16,141 last season to 14,993 this season. A final league position of 20th in the table, compared to 7th last season, accounts for that. As there has been for so many years, there has been dissatisfaction at the way in which the club is being run this season, but the biggest issue for Rovers is the number of empty seats at Ewood Park. This season's fall in attendances meant that, with the ground having a capacity of 31,367, the proportion of occupied seats dipped under 50% this season, by far the lowest in the division.