Explainer: Is Peter V’landys right when he says the NRL is more watched than the AFL?
Peter V’landys raised some eyebrows when he claimed NRL is the most watched sport in the land as he goes to the negotiating table on broadcast rights. Is he right? Here’s what the numbers say.
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It was another statement from the NRL supremo Peter V’landys that would have had eyebrows raised in AFL and media circles.
“We have worked very hard to get the game to be the most watched sport in Australia,” V’Landys said as he spruiked the league closing in on what is expected to be a league record broadcast rights deal.
He went on to declare that “we are the No.1 in Australia”, “we have the premium product, that’s all that matters” and “we have got the game that is the most watched”.
Those declarations led to a deep dive on the numbers between the two winter codes.
WHICH SPORT IS WATCHED MORE?
Numbers cited alongside V’landys’ trumpeting showed the NRL attracted 153.7m viewers in 2024, compared to 140.3m for the AFL.
When canvassed about those figures, voices across the media landscape were surprised and said those numbers were likely ‘peak’ audiences instead of averages for games watched.
“In reality it is not the most watched sport,” one figure said.
Opposing V’landys’ claims, AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said at the season launch in Sydney earlier this month that 400 million hours of games were watched on broadcast last year, 40 per cent more than the next closest sport.
Dillon has repeated that number multiple times across the pre-season.
Publicly available free-to-air TV numbers show the AFL consistently win when games to head-to-head.
Last year, the southern game pipped the NRL on Thursdays when the leagues played at the same time, as well as across the weekend and that trend has continued to start 2025.
On the most recent Thursday, an average of 671,000 viewers watched Channel 7’s AFL coverage, compared to 555,000 over on Channel 9 for the NRL.
On Friday, the trend carried over with an average of 633,000 watching Hawthorn beat Essendon, compared to 587,000 watching Sydney Roosters top the Penrith Panthers.
Foxtel’s ratings aren’t publicly available but NRL viewership in New South Wales and Queensland has been traditionally strong.
That would likely be largely evened out by the AFL, given Fox Footy has also boasted strong numbers and was encouraged with those tuning in for round 1’s first Super Saturday coverage.
The NRL also had more marquee slots last year, hosting 21 Thursday prime-time games, compared to the AFL’s 14.
There were 20 Friday night double-headers in the NRL last year, compared to two in the AFL, boosting overall viewership, potentially allowing the NRL to come out on top in overall viewers rather than averages.
The rugby league plays on more weekends than Aussie rules but had three fewer regular season games.
Advertisers in TV land pay for average viewership rather than peak audiences, despite networks spruiking the bigger number.
Data released by researchers Roy Morgan on Tuesday showed more Australians watched AFL than NRL.
According to that data, 9.1m Aussies over the age of 14 occasionally or regularly watched AFL in 2024, compared to the 7.3m who watched the northern game.
Of course, not all watching these days comes through the TV.
Whether or not he logs into the apps himself, V’landys’ game is ahead on video social media platforms Instagram and TikTok, leading the AFL in followers on both.
“The idea that they (NRL) are all of a sudden bigger and stronger than the AFL, it just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,” media rights expert Colin Smith said.
The AFL was contacted for comment.
WHAT ABOUT THE BIG GAMES?
State of Origin is the NRL trump card.
The Queensland-New South Wales clashes are consistently the biggest mid-year event in Australian sport and the three matches put on by rugby league cannot be matched by Aussie rules.
All three State of Origin games sat in the top five most-watched sporting events on free-to-air TV last year.
The representative competition was not included in the 153.7m count of rugby viewers but will be a big factor in V’landys’ rights negotiations.
The NRLW competition has also been more of a ratings winner than AFLW.
The top of that list of most watched last year was the AFL grand final between the Lions and Swans, drawing 4.02m viewers to 7.
The NRL equivalent between the Panthers and Storm raked in 3.42m, fourth on the list behind the AFL decider and two State of Origin clashes.
AND WHAT ABOUT GAME ATTENDANCE?
This isn’t all that close.
The NRL averaged 20,171 fans at 204 home-and-away games last year, while the AFL brought in 37,455 at 207 regular season matches.
The AFL boasted this week it broke the record for its highest attended round ever in round 1 and the lowest attended game of the nine played was 23,278 at the MCG as GWS defeated Melbourne.
The NRL played eight games on the same weekend, none of which beat the crowd for the Giants-Demons clash.
WHY IS THE NRL PUSHING IT IS AHEAD?
The answer to this one is simple, big numbers in ratings means big money on the new broadcasting agreement.
The AFL signed a huge seven-season $4.5 billion deal in late 2022 that has become the benchmark for V’landys and his crew to hunt down.
Industry figures don’t expect the NRL to match the AFL payday, but you can only try.
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