Las Vegas viewing figures boom

More than three million viewers in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand tuned into the opening two matches of the NRL season at Allegiant Stadium, as new broadcast records were set across the game.

In further proof that rugby league's globalisation strategy is already paying off after just the second year of the NRL's Vegas venture, viewership in the US increased by more than 600 per cent on the 2024 season opener.

With exposure on the FOX network driving unprecedented viewership in the US, the Raiders-Warriors match attracted an average US audience of 371,000, with streaming on WatchNRL taking the total number of viewers above 400,000.

In comparison, last year's Sea Eagles-Rabbitohs match drew an audience of 61,000 in the United States.

The 371,000 average viewers on FOX was up 86% on FOX's previous rugby telecast performance of 200K viewers for the Major League Rugby Championship.

With WatchNRL streaming these numbers increase even further.

The Panthers-Sharks match outperformed average viewership on FS1 in 2024 by more than 100%, with 33,000 viewers compared to 16,000 for last year's Roosters-Broncos fixture.