NRL vs AFL – Which grand final won the TV battle?

As AFL and NRL diehards go at it yet again over which sport is better and whether The Kid LAROI’s performance was better than Katy Perry’s, the dust has settled on the 2024 seasons.

And while the NRL achieved its highest TV audience for a grand final since 2022 this past weekend when the Penrith Panthers toppled the Melbourne Storm, it was the AFL who won over Australian audiences.

Sunday night’s NRL grand final pulled in a national Total TV reach of 5.349 million, which fell just behind last weekend’s AFL match – a Brisbane Lions masterclass over the Sydney Swans – which hit a total TV reach of 6.228 million.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the NRL though, as Sunday’s game achieved an average audience across Total TV of 3.422 million, up 0.3% year on year.

Meanwhile, the AFL grand final recorded its biggest ever audience for an AFL match on a streaming platform, with 7plus Sport reaching 655,000 viewers.

Gereurd Roberts, group managing director, Seven Digital, said: “The record-breaking number of people who watched the AFL Grand Final on 7plus Sport clearly demonstrates how the addition of AFL and cricket to 7plus will forever change the way Australians watch and engage with sport, and create unprecedented opportunities for our clients and agency partners.

“We’ve always said the arrival of AFL and cricket on 7plus would be a defining moment in the digital streaming revolution, and Saturday’s numbers prove that.

“With a massive summer of cricket to come, including five Tests between Australia and India, Australians can now watch every Seven sport, live and free on any device from anywhere in the country, at any time. And the weekend’s Grand Final shows just how important that is to them.”

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Neil Griffiths

Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.

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topics AFL AFL Grand Final Katy Perry NRL NRL Grand Final Penrith Panthers Melbourne Storm Sydney Swans Brisbane Lions The Kid Laroi

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