England v Fiji match more popular than All Blacks game

More people in NZ watched the England v Fiji game than the All Blacks v Argentina match. Photo / Brett Phibbs, NZ Herald

The Rugby World Cup opener between England and Fiji had more combined viewers in New Zealand than any other match so far, including the All Blacks v. Argentina game on Monday morning.

The Twickenham fixture at 7am on Saturday morning on Sky Sport 1 had 5.5 per cent of all people aged five years and older in New Zealand watching, which equates to over 230,000 viewers.

Another 4.4 per cent - more than 182,000 viewers - tuned in to the opening game screened live on Prime.

However, despite being in the early hours of Monday morning, the All Blacks and Argentina game on Sky Sport 1 was the most watched on a single channel - attracting 5.9 per cent between 3.47am and 5.37am. This is over 247,000 viewers.

Prime did not have live action of this game but its delayed coverage at midday got 2.1 per cent, which is more than 87,000 people watching the free-to-air coverage.

The fourth most watched game was a replay of Japan's incredible upset over South Africa at 6.30pm on Sunday night on Sky Sport 1. This had 2.5 per cent, or over 105,000 viewers.

Other high-viewership games included France v. Italy live on Sky Sport 1 on Sunday morning and a replay of All Blacks v. Argentina on the same channel at 6.30am on Monday morning. Both received over 87,000 viewers.

The figures - sourced from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement (TAM) 19-21 September 2015 AP5+ - are based on a national audience of 4,200,882.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that ITV figures in Britain peaked at 9.4 million viewers, with an average of 7.8 million, for England's opening match against Fiji on the weekend.

This makes it the most watched sporting event in Britain this year.

The newspaper reported that more than four in 10 people watching TV at the time were tuned in to the World Cup opener.

SKY Television declined to comment on whether its subscriber numbers had increased due to its broadcasting of the Rugby World Cup.

A SKY spokeswoman also said the company could not share its viewership numbers.