It only took one week to see the effect of the Winter Olympics on the PWHL's ever-rising popularity.
Over the course of the first week back alone, the PWHL recorded two record-setting crowds, with two more potentially on the books for later in the year.
Prior to the return to play, the PWHL recorded ten record-setting crowds through the league's first two-and-a-half seasons.
Last Friday, the game between the Seattle Torrent and the Toronto Sceptres, played at Climate Pledge Arena, recorded a 17,355 person crowd. That crowd took the record for the largest crowd at a professional women's hockey game in the United States, beating the previous attendance record by well over one hundred people. The game also served as the Torrent's first sellout crowd.
Just four days later, the Sceptres would record Coca-Cola Coliseum's largest PWHL crowd; 8,671 people would be on hand for a 4-3 shootout loss against the Montreal Victoire.
Though the Torrent just broke the United States' attendance record for a women's hockey game, there's a good chance that they are involved in yet another milestone of a similar nature.
Earlier this week, the PWHL announced that the New York Sirens' Madison Square Garden-based home game against the Torrent would be a sellout. Given that Madison Square Garden can host over 18,000 people, there's a very good chance that the U.S. attendance record gets broken in one month's time.
Meanwhile, the Boston Fleet's April 11th home game at TD Garden, which will see the Fleet play the Victoire, could also see a record being broken. The capacity at TD Garden for a hockey game sits at 17,850 people; though there is a small chance that the TD Garden-based game is a record-breaker, it is in a good position to become one of the United States' highest crowd totals for a professional women's hockey game.
Outside of those two games, the PWHL still has six games left on their Takeover Tour for the 2025-26 season, with three of those games set to be played on American soil.
The first of those two games will take place at Ball Arena, known as the home stadium of the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and the NBA's Denver Nuggets. Not only is the stadium capable of welcoming over 18,000 people, a similar capacity to that of New York City's Madison Square Garden, but there is also significant interest and fan demand for a PWHL team in Denver.
Though an earlier Takeover Tour game played at Ball Arena recorded around 12,000 people, media outlets are suggesting that the PWHL will announce a second expansion in the next several weeks. With the prospect of a Denver-based PWHL team looking more likely than ever, there is a decent chance that the arena's next PWHL game will be a record-breaker, especially as it will be played almost three weeks before the April 4th game at Madison Square Garden.
The same can be said for the second U.S-based Takeover Tour game that is left on the schedule, which is set to be hosted by Chicago's AllState Arena. Though the stadium holds just under 17,000 for hockey, it is capable of holding at least 18,500 people for some events.
For the third Takeover Tour game left on the U.S-based schedule, there is a strong chance that there is a record-breaker of some form. Little Caesars Arena, home of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and the NBA's Detroit Pistons, is capable of holding well over 19,000 people. 10,000 people attended the arena's first Takeover Tour stop of the season, but like with the last two arenas, an expansion announcement could drive a steep increase in attendance from the first game to the second.
It is worth noting that the previous Chicago-based Takeover Tour game welcomed just over 7,000 fans, but the possibility that Chicago gets chosen to welcome a future PWHL franchise could drive a large crowd to the AllState Arena.
In terms of Canadian crowd totals, the current record stands at 21,105. That came as a result of a game played between the Montreal Victoire and Toronto Sceptres during the 2024 PWHL season; that game was played at the iconic Bell Centre.
Though the Takeover Tour will stop in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton, the three stadiums selected - Winnipeg's Canada Life Centre, Calgary's Scotiabank Saddledome, and Edmonton's Rogers Place - would all only be able to fall short of the Bell Centre's crowd at their respective capacities.
The next opportunity for a record-breaking crowd to be recorded will be Ball Arena's Takeover Tour stop. The game will be played on March 15th between the Sirens and the Minnesota Frost; puck drop is set for 4:00 PM EST.