NRL free-to-air Vegas TV ratings smash records

The NRL's Vegas season opener has taken another step forward, recording a rise on the 2024 event, narrowly beating out the Matildas opening match of the women's Asian Cup.

The NRL Vegas season opener saw three games in 'Sin City', with Hull KR v Leeds Rhinos, Cowboys v Knights, and Bulldogs v Dragons entertaining the crowd of 45,719, 500 up on 2025 making it the most attended Vegas event.

2,100,000 fans watched the event, 7 per cent up on 2025, with viewership of the English game increasing by 35 per cent.

A number of records were broken for viewership by team, with the Bulldogs v Dragons game the most watched of all time between the two sides, while it was the most watched game on Fox Sports ever for both the Knights and Cowboys.

However, in a surprise turn of events, the NRL's free-to-air broadcast and crowd numbers only slightly beat out the Matildas' opening match of the Women's Asian Cup.

The Bulldogs v Dragons game on Channel 9 recorded a total national reach of 1.519 million people, only 79,000 more than the Matildas v Philippines game on Channel 10.

The games were played in different time slots due to the West Coast's time zone difference.

The NRL crowd of 45,719 also only slightly beat out the Matildas' crowd of 44,379 in Perth.

The numbers show promise for both codes.

As the NRL continues to try and break off a piece of the American market, the continued high numbers for both crowd and broadcast demonstrate the foothold the code now has in Vegas and allows for a base for which the game can build off as they approach the fourth year of the concept.

The NRL initially agreed to a five-year deal, seeing the next five season openers played in Vegas, and have completed three of those fixtures now.

With the NRL hoping to introduce a global round concept in 2027, with cities like London, Tokyo, and Abu Dhabi singled out as potential destinations alongside Las Vegas, the growth of the NRL globally is clearly still a priority for the NRL.

As for the Matildas, while the crowds aren't the height of the 2023 World Cup, which saw the side's popularity skyrocket, a figure of 40,000 is promising considering it is the start of the tournament.

The tournament is running from March 1-21 across Perth, Sydney, and the Gold Coast and is aiming to attract over 800,000 attendees.

SEN's Adam Peacock says, while the crowds won't hit the heights of the World Cup, it isn't panic stations yet for tournament organisers.

"Go back two years ago, there's no way in the world there's an empty seat in that stadium," Peacock said on SEN 1170 Afternoons.

"Is the price point right? I think it's okay for the Women's Asian Cup.

"Footy just around the corner, our eyes on that. Is money being saved to go to that in the sporting public realm?

"Outside the football fraternity, that might be a factor as well, but again, if they don't pack out Gold Coast, don't pack out Accor stadium next Sunday night, (there's a worry).

"The Women's World Cup blew me away, the game that was in Sydney, it was a Tuesday afternoon... kickoff, was Columbia v Korea (and) there was 30,000 people there... I could not believe my eyes.

"How they pump up these crowds at the other games during the Women's Asian Cup remains to be seen, but hopefully they do, and, and I think once it gets to the knockout stages, it'll gain even more traction, even though it's coinciding with a lot of other great sport.

"You look at the sporting slate this weekend coming. You've got a Formula One Grand Prix, you've got normal stuff happening in A-League men's... and then on the home territory you've got two Super Rugby games, five AFL games, and five more NRL games... it's very crowded."