Warriors and NRL viewership enjoying strong growth on Sky Sport

Shaun Johnson celebrates with Warriors teammate Wayde Egan after scoring. Photo / Photosport

While the Warriors are mired in a losing streak, the NRL is enjoying strong growth in viewership audiences during the 2024 season.

Ten rounds into the competition, nearly 1.59 million New Zealanders have watched matches on Sky Sport and free to air on Sky Open, a lift of 14 per cent from last season.

NRL matches were also streamed more than 5.9 million times, an increase of 19 per cent, with more than 185,500 unique viewers on Sky Sport Now and Sky Go.

Warriors matches are unsurprisingly the most popular of the 2024 season. Their win over the Raiders in March attracted an audience of 469,800, with a further 63,800 streaming.

The Warriors’ loss to the Sharks that same month was the second most popular game so far, while their draw with the Sea Eagles ranked third.

Warriors chief executive Cameron George saw a connection between the growth experienced by the club and the increased viewer engagement with the NRL season.

“The growth in viewership across Sky’s platforms is terrific news, reinforcing the huge upsurge of interest in the One New Zealand Warriors, the NRL and rugby league in general,” George said.

“We’ve seen sellouts in stadium for the club’s first five home games of the season and exponential growth across all aspects of our organisation.”

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said it had been pleasing to see the passion of the New Zealand audience for the competition this year.

“Rugby league is absolutely surging in New Zealand and it’s pleasing to see more fans enjoying the game than ever before.”