Penn State breaks Beaver Stadium attendance record for top 5 matchup with Ohio State

Beaver Stadium has hosted plenty of big games with plenty of big crowds, but none bigger than the one that assembled in Happy Valley on Saturday, November 2, 2024, as the No. 3 Nittany Lions hosted the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes. Penn State officially set its new home attendance record with 111,030 fans inside Beaver Stadium. 

Penn State’s previous record was set in 2018 when the Nittany Lions hosted the Buckeyes. The massive crowd in attendance for the Noon kickoff may dispel the notion that FOX moving the game to its Big Noon Kickoff spot hurts the home atmosphere for Penn State. The program had to schedule its White Out game for Week 11 against Washington because of fears that FOX would claim this Ohio State game for Big Noon. 

Fans even went so far as to call for a boycott of FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show with ESPN’s College Gameday also in town as an alternative. Clearly, all the attention that this game has drawn, even in the early afternoon, attracted plenty of Penn State and Ohio State fans to gather in Beaver Stadium. 

Penn State has averaged just under 109,000 fans per home game this season. Offseason upgrade to Beaver Stadium made sure not to reduce the capacity of the stadium and it appears that those renovations were successful. The goal of said renovations was largely to have the stadium prepared to potentially host a home College Football Playoff Game in the first round this December.