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Fact check: How did attendance at the No Kings protests compare to the 2020 Women's March?
Executive Summary
The available reporting and organizer statements indicate that the No Kings protests in 2025 were claimed to draw millions of participants nationwide and to include over 2,600 planned events, placing them in the same magnitude as or larger than the 2020 Women’s March, which is commonly quoted at about 1 million participants across the U.S. [1] [2]. Sources differ on methods and dates: some characterize the June No Kings actions as among the largest single-day U.S. protests in history, while later organizer projections for October emphasize scale but rely on event counts rather than independently verified turnout figures [2] [3].
1. What advocates and studies are claiming — big-picture turnout assertions that grab headlines
Multiple sources assert a very large No Kings turnout: a study dated August 14, 2025, estimated 2 to 4.8 million people across over 2,150 actions, framing No Kings as “one of the largest single days of protest in U.S. history,” while organizer materials in October 2025 promised over 2,600 events and suggested potentially millions would participate, a scale that could exceed the 2020 Women’s March [2] [1] [3]. Organizers and sympathetic studies emphasize aggregate national participation and event counts as their evidence, which produces headline-grabbing comparisons to earlier large protests [2] [3].
2. What local reporting and police estimates actually documented — smaller, concrete counts
Local reportage shows more modest but still significant local turnouts: Sacramento-area No Kings rallies “drew thousands” at state Capitol and other sites, and Seattle’s 2024 Women’s March was reported at about 10,000 by police, far smaller than the inaugural 2017 crowd of over 100,000, illustrating how local counts can vary greatly from national aggregates [4] [5]. On-the-ground police and city estimates typically focus on single locations and therefore can appear to conflict with nationwide organizer totals that sum many dispersed actions [4] [5].
3. The 2020 Women’s March baseline — what “about 1 million” means and its limits
The repeated benchmark for the 2020 Women’s March in these sources is approximately 1 million participants nationwide, a figure used to compare No Kings’ scale [1]. This 1 million figure aggregates many local marches and relies on a mix of organizer counts, media estimates, and some municipal data; it is widely cited but subject to the same aggregation limits as contemporary claims about No Kings. Comparisons using aggregate national totals therefore align methodologically but inherit the same uncertainty from diverse counting techniques [1].
4. Timing and consistency — early June actions versus October mobilizations
Some sources highlight that the first No Kings rallies in June were already among the largest single-day protests in U.S. history, and organizers’ October iterations built on that momentum with more events planned nationwide, suggesting growth through 2025 [3] [6]. Other pieces note expectations rather than verified final counts for October, meaning the strongest empirical claim rests on the June dataset and the August study; October projections are primarily organizer statements rather than independent tallies [3] [7].
5. Why estimates differ — methodology, incentives, and geographic scope
Differences stem from methodology: organizer totals sum dispersed events and often count registered or expected participants, whereas police and journalists report observed crowds at single sites [1] [5]. Studies may attempt rigorous aggregation but still rely on self-reported event lists and varied local estimates [2]. Stakeholders have incentives—organizers to maximize perceived success, critics to minimize—so divergent numbers reflect differing aims and counting choices rather than mutually exclusive facts [2] [1].
6. What’s missing from the conversation — verification, standardized methods, and demographic detail
Absent in the presented materials are consistent, independent verification methods (e.g., satellite imagery, standardized sampling) and granular demographic or participation-duration data that would allow apples-to-apples comparisons between No Kings and the 2020 Women’s March [2] [3]. Organizer event counts and national aggregates provide scale but not reliable per-site headcounts or duration-weighted participation, leaving the precise comparative ranking of total participants open to interpretation [1] [2].
7. The bottom line — a cautious, evidence-based comparison
Based on the provided sources, it is accurate to say organizers and at least one August 2025 study claim No Kings equaled or exceeded the 2020 Women’s March in aggregate national turnout, with event counts in the low thousands and total participation framed in the millions; local reporting, police counts, and the absence of uniform verification mean that claim is plausible but not conclusively proven [2] [1] [4]. Readers should treat organizer aggregates and single-site estimates as complementary pieces of evidence rather than identical measures, and seek follow-up reporting that applies standardized, independent counting methods for a definitive ranking [3] [7].