Anecdotally, I had heard that schools that started with (less math based) physics found more kids actually learned physics and liked it (rather than getting lost in the math).
I think ours is still Chem for freshmen with sophomore options including physics, bio, AP Chem, etc. No matter which is first, there is possibly a gap between the first exposure and a higher level class. This is more of an issue if the gap is several years and the expectation is that you have remembered everything from the foundation class but I am not sure how this is avoided.