The return of Australia and New Zealand’s elite rugby league competition, the NRL, to the US has been heralded as a roaring success after drawing strong crowds and domestic TV viewership to its season-opening event in Las Vegas.
The second edition of NRL’s jaunt into the US saw four matches included in the program at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Saturday (March 1) – two NRL clashes, a game from English counterparts the Super League between Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves, and a women’s international between Australia and England.
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An official crowd of 45,209 watched as Super League’s Wigan Warriors swept aside the Warrington Wolves 48-24 in that league’s opener before Canberra Raiders beat New Zealand Warriors 30-8 in the first NRL game of the year.
After Australia thrashed England 90-4 in the women’s international, NRL’s Penrith began their hunt for a fifth successive NRL title with a tight 28-22 victory over Cronulla.
The official crowd was up from the 40,746 the NRL drew for the two games it staged in the 65,000-seat stadium for last year’s inaugural event. Around 10,000 fans are reported to have made the trip from the UK to watch this year's inclusion of the Super League match.
A reported 15,000 tickets, meanwhile, were purchased by fans based in the US.
Only combined attendance data for the entire program is available, however, crowds were noticeably larger during the second game between NRL sides Canberra and Warriors before slowly declining, with the stands emptier for the last match between Cronulla and Penrith.
Allegiant Stadium does not allow re-entry once ticket holders have left, meaning fans who arrived for the first game and stayed until the end of the fourth match would have been in the ground for nine hours.
Australian Rugby League chairman Peter V’landys said the league is looking to revise the number of games it will play for the third year of its five-year deal due to the decline in numbers in the latter part of the program.
He said: “We are looking at three next year [because of the] length of day and fans leaving after their teams played.”
The NRL has a deal to play regular season matches in Las Vegas until 2028 as part of a strategic plan to break into the US market. The Super League’s inclusion into the program, meanwhile, has given a lifeline to the financially struggling league.
After the Super League opener, Rugby League Commercial (RLC), the body established to secure the commercial future of the sport in England, confirmed that it would be included in next year’s US trip.
Speaking to Sky Sports, RLC chief Rodri Jones said: “I can confirm there will be a game here next year of Super League in Vegas.
“We had the conversation with the NRL earlier this week. They want us to be a part of this event. I think the two teams this year and ourselves have proved that we are an integral part of this event so Super League will be back here next year.”
Jones added that Super League clubs would be invited to register their interest in taking part in the 2026 showpiece event.
Meanwhile, domestic viewership in Australia on pay-TV broadcasting heavyweight Foxtel’s streaming platform Kayo saw the Las Vegas match day become the most streamed day ever for the Fox League channel with 114 million minutes streamed.
The event was also televised by Fox in the US, on the Fox Sports 1 channel, adding millions of potential new viewers, having previously aired the inaugural US event in 2024.
