2024 NRL Grand Final viewership reached new heights, with a record 762,000 on BVOD and 3.422 million across Total TV.
The 2024 NRL Grand Final has delivered strong television viewership for Nine, drawing in a significant audience on Sunday night. The match, which marked the pinnacle of the NRL season, attracted an average of 3.422 million viewers across Total TV, representing a slight 0.3% increase compared to last year’s final.
This marks the largest Total TV audience for an NRL Grand Final since 2022, underlining the event’s popularity in the eastern states. Last year’s highly anticipated clash between the Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos garnered 3.404 million viewers, a close comparison to this year’s numbers.
Audience figures were predominantly concentrated in Sydney, which accounted for 917,000 viewers, followed by Melbourne with 529,000, and Brisbane with 567,000. Adelaide and Perth contributed smaller audiences, with 100,000 and 131,000 viewers respectively.
Despite the strong showing for the NRL, it trailed behind the AFL Grand Final in total viewership. The AFL Grand Final, held earlier in the afternoon, secured a national Total TV average of 4.055 million viewers, outpacing the NRL’s 3.422 million.
This discrepancy continues to fuel the debate over whether the AFL should shift its Grand Final to a prime-time evening slot, though the NRL’s figures suggest that such a move might not necessarily result in a significant boost.
One area where the NRL did see notable growth was in its BVOD (Broadcast Video on Demand) audience. This year’s NRL Grand Final recorded a BVOD audience of 762,000, a 26% year-on-year increase and the highest-ever BVOD audience for an NRL Grand Final.
This surge reflects the increasing trend of viewers opting to watch live sports via streaming platforms rather than traditional television broadcasts.
In addition to the men’s competition, the NRLW Grand Final also reached new heights, setting a record for the highest-ever BVOD audience for the women’s final. With 101,000 viewers tuning in via BVOD, this represented a 15% year-on-year increase. The women’s final achieved a National Total TV reach of 1.452 million, with an average Total TV audience of 691,000.
The strong performance of both the NRL and NRLW Grand Finals reinforces Nine’s dominance in live sports broadcasting and highlights the growing appeal of both the men’s and women’s rugby league competitions to Australian audiences.