The thrilling 2023 NRL Premiership decider between the Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos last night on Channel 9 and 9Now has attracted a record Australian Grand Final streaming audience with 605,000 on 9Now – the largest for a rugby league game in history.
The two top teams of the 2023 season squared off in a heart-stopping Grand Final that scored a national average audience of 2.916 million viewers on Linear TV (Metro: 2.045 m / Regional: 870,000) and a Live BVOD figure of 605,000 taking the TotalTV audience to 3.521 million viewers.
The result for the primetime Sunday night broadcast fell just short of the Saturday afternoon AFL Grand Final on Channel 7 and 7plus which achieved a national average audience of 3.75 million.
The 2023 NRL Grand Final, available to stream exclusively on 9Now, registered the highest-ever live-streaming audience for an AFL or NRL Grand Final in Australian TV history.
Viewers flocked to 9Now, with the game attracting a record BVOD Live average audience of 605,000, up 56% year-on-year.
Overall, the 2023 NRL Grand Final delivered Nine a significant boost from 2022 Penrith Panthers vs Parramatta Eels Grand Final which achieved a national audience of just 2.76 million.
The 2023 NRLW Grand Final played between the Newcastle Knights and the Gold Coast Titans yesterday recorded the highest ever BVOD/streaming Audience for an NRLW game, and was up 62% on the 2022 NRLW Grand Final won by the Knights.
On Linear TV the NRLW Grand Final was also the most watched ever with 708,000, 16% more than the previous best from 2022, tuning in for a record Total TV figure of 794,000.
The game capped a season of record audiences on 9Now as the NRL continues to highlight Nine’s market-leading digital transformation, with Australians consuming NRL and NRLW across a multitude of Nine’s platforms from 9Now, WWOS.com.au, and various mastheads and audio assets.
Sunday night’s Grand Final capped off a successful 2023 NRL season overall which saw Total TV grow 3% YoY, and NRL on 9Now up +36% YoY. While the NRLW GF was up 16% on Linear TV and +62% on 9Now YoY.
“Last night’s incredible NRL Grand Final reached 4.6 million and further highlighted 9Now as the No.1 destination for big event live sport with a 56% Year on Year uplift,”
said Hamish Turner, Nine’s Director of 9Now and Programming.
“We have experienced fantastic year on year growth for 9Now this season as Nine continues to offer the biggest reach of any broadcaster in the country.”
“Nine’s investment in the Women’s rugby league was vindicated again yesterday with the most watched NRLW Grand Final in history on both 9Now and Linear TV tuning in for the Newcastle Knights comeback victory over the Gold Coast Titans. Congratulations to the NRL, the players and the teams on a fantastic season.”
