The State Fair of Texas estimated an attendance of more than 2 million for the 2025 season, down nearly 400,000 visitors from last year.
In a news release Sunday, the closing day of the fair, State Fair officials estimated more than 2 million visitors made it to Fair Park during the event’s 24-day run.
In 2024, 2,385,855 people visited the fair during its 138th year. The attendance record for past fairs is 2.5 million visitors.
Social media lit up this year about seemingly sparse crowds compared with prior years.
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At the time, fair officials and vendors said seeing fewer people while at the fair doesn’t fully capture how many people are there and plan to attend. They also said attendance tended to pick up after the Texas-OU game.
Game day at the fair
The busiest day at the fair was Oct. 11, when the Texas-Oklahoma football game came to the renovated Cotton Bowl. A total of 193,000 fairgoers came to Fair Park. That’s down more than 19,000 from 212,003 attendees at last year’s Texas-OU game day.
Club América Femenil’s Kimberly Rodriguez (left) and Dallas Trinity FC’s Kiley Dulaney
(3) battled along the sideline during the first half of the inaugural State Fair Clásico at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Oct. 18, 2025. The attendance was reported to be more than 22,000.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Nearly 23,000 fans flooded the Cotton Bowl for the historic, first-ever women’s soccer match featuring Dallas Trinity FC and Club América Femenil. Fair officials said this game had the largest attendance ever for a women’s professional sporting event in Texas.
About 61,000 fans attended 15 free rodeo events across the 24-day run of 2025 fair season.
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Giving back
Big Tex Urban Farms has donated over 26,670 pounds of fresh produce as of this year. Fair officials said this is equivalent to more than 9 million servings donated to help feed the South Dallas and Fair Park community since 2016.
This year, the fair’s Big Tex Scholarship Program awarded more than $1.3 million in college scholarships to 220 students throughout Texas.
Eligible high school seniors and seasonal employees can apply online at bigtex.com/supporting-texans/scholarship now for a 2026 Big Tex college scholarship.
The release did not include information on the slowest days of the fair.
Staff writer Timia Cobb contributed to this report.