Approximately 40,000 people attend the Punxsutawney Groundhog Day celebration each year. That figure describes the event’s largest reported crowds and is the standard answer to this trivia question.
The ceremony takes place at Gobbler’s Knob, outside Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where Punxsutawney Phil’s handlers announce whether he saw his shadow. The tradition was formally established in 1887 and has grown into the best-known Groundhog Day gathering in North America.
Attendance was reportedly around 2,000 before the 1993 film Groundhog Day. After the movie brought worldwide attention to Punxsutawney, crowds rose to roughly 10,000–20,000 and have sometimes reached 40,000. The number is therefore a peak or approximate crowd figure, not a guaranteed headcount every year; the 2021 ceremony, for example, was held without spectators because of COVID-19 restrictions.