Promotion brings a celebration, a new fixture list and a question that follows a club all season: can they stay there?

Across the eight completed Premier League seasons from 2018/19 to 2025/26, ten of the 24 promoted clubs survived their first season. That is roughly 42 per cent in this particular sample. The details show why a single average can hide wildly different years.

Promoted teams that survived their first Premier League season: 1 of 3 in 2018/19, 2 in 2019/20, 1 in 2020/21, 1 in 2021/22, 3 in 2022/23, none in 2023/24 or 2024/25, and 2 in 2025/26.

Premier League season Promoted clubs that stayed up
2018/19 1 of 3
2019/20 2 of 3
2020/21 1 of 3
2021/22 1 of 3
2022/23 3 of 3
2023/24 0 of 3
2024/25 0 of 3
2025/26 2 of 3

We counted clubs promoted from the Championship into each season, then checked whether they finished outside the bottom three in the corresponding TotalOdds final table. The sample measures first-season survival only, not how long those clubs stayed up afterwards.

Three survivors, then two difficult years

Fulham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest all stayed up in 2022/23. The Premier League's records also list that trio among the seasons in which all three promoted clubs survived.

The next two campaigns told a different story. Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton went straight back down in 2023/24, followed by Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton in 2024/25.

Leeds and Sunderland changed the picture

In 2025/26, Leeds and Sunderland stayed up, while Burnley were relegated. It is a reminder that a recent run is not a rule: promoted clubs face different squads, opponents and circumstances every season.

For 2026/27, the promoted sides are Coventry, Ipswich and Hull, confirmed by the Premier League. Their final outcomes are not yet known.

What should fans watch?

Look beyond the promotion label. Home and away form, goals scored and conceded, injuries and games against nearby rivals all help explain a club's position. Historical survival rates are context, not a prediction for any individual club.

Follow the current Premier League table and the Championship to see how the next group of challengers is shaping up.

Cover: Leeds United training before Fulham v Leeds in September 2025, illustrative file photograph by Timmy96 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0; cropped and overlaid.