State Of Origin series pulling biggest TV audiences in a decade
The first two matches of the 2025 NRL State of Origin have drawn the largest free-to-air TV crowds for the annual match-up seen in a decade.
According to the Oztam VOZ ratings, Wednesday night’s State of Origin Game 2 — in which the Queensland Maroons tied the series at one game apiece — was the highest-rating Game 2 since 2015, while the first game in the series was the most-watched opening match since 2016.
Game 2 of the State of Origin drew big crowds this week.
Interestingly, both matches managed to pull basically the same total audience — 5.467 million for Game 2 and 5.449 million for the first game — and the same average viewership throughout, with the Game 1 average of 3.755 million just ahead of Wednesday night’s 3.751 million, for Game 2.
This bodes well for Game 3, which is on target to become the top rating free-to-air program of 2025 – until grand final season.
The average audience for Game 1 was up 11.2% from 2024, with Game 2 increasing by 17.5%, year-on-year. Game 2 drew the biggest ever TV audiences for an Origin game in Perth – which will be read as a positive sign by the newly minted Perth Bears, who enter the NRL in 2027.
Broken down by cities, over a million Sydney viewers watched Game 2, with 888,000 tuning in from Brisbane. Melbourne drew 308,000 viewers, while just 96,000 Adelaide fans tuned in – the only capital city where the rugby league didn’t top the evening’s ratings. Perth drew 190,000 viewers.
Not surprisingly, this year’s Origin series has been the two most-watched BVOD programs in Nine’s history, with Game 1 pulling a 9Now audience of 963,000, and Game 2 drawing 957,000.
The second game drew 29.5% more BVOD viewers than Game 2 in 2024, suggesting the shift to digital sports is accelerating on the free-to-air platform as well as on streamers like Kayo and Stan Sport.
State of Origin Game 3 is scheduled for July 9. Given it is the deciding match, it is expected to trump the first two matches in terms of TV ratings.
For comparison, last year’s AFL Grand Final drew 6.09 million total viewers, with an average audience of over 4 million. The NRL final pulled a total of 5.35 million, and an average of 3.42 million.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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