The Holden State of Origin match at ANZ Stadium last night is the highest rating Origin match on record.
And it is the highest rating television show so far this year – eclipsing Origin I which was the previous top rating show of 2014.
A total 4.193 million viewers watched the NSW Blues break Queensland’s eight year Origin reign on Channel 9.
This is on top of the 83,421 fans who watched the game live at ANZ.
The huge television audience included:
· A total metropolitan audience of 2.70 million viewers
· A 20 per cent increase in the Sydney audience (1.20 million) compared with the same game last year
· The second highest regional State of Origin audience ever (1.49 million average)
· The biggest Origin audience on record in Perth (121,000) and an average of 420,000 viewers in Melbourne
More than 8 million unique people tuned into official NRL, QLD and NSW Facebook page content for Origin II in a single day. Origin II set new NRL Facebook and Twitter records.
NRL Head of Commercial, Mr Paul Kind, said State of Origin is the best sporting brand in Australia.
He said Origin programs had taken the top three spots in the ratings last night with the pre-game and post-game segments also attracting huge audiences of more than 1.2 million each.
“State of Origin is bigger than it has ever been,” he said.
“Channel 9 deserves congratulations for the success of its world class coverage of both Origin games so far this year.
“Now the Origin focus moves to Brisbane for game III on July 9 and I have no doubt it will be just as competitive and keenly fought as the first two games.”
