AFL & NRL Footy TV Ratings - 2026

[Beaussie]

Friday 28 August



Huge audience for the first ever AFL Wildcard Final between the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood Magpies.

SEVEN’S AFL: FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,539,000 966,000 166,000

Friday night NRL featured the Penrith Panthers vs the Canterbury/Bankstown Bulldogs.

FRIDAY NIGHT NRL LIVE Nine 1,270,000 625,000 144,000

[Beaussie]

Saturday 29 August

Another big AFL Wildcard Finals tv audience last night.



Melbourne Demons vs Carlton Blues

SEVEN’S AFL: SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,208,000 894,000 153,000




SATURDAY NIGHT NRL LIVE Nine 1,083,000 433,000 79,000

[QueenslandISAFL]

30.08.2026

2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series off to a flyer

The 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series is off to an unbelievable start with huge crowds and TV audiences witnessing two big finals across the weekend.

A total of 172,769 fans attended the first ever Wildcard Finals across two historic nights at the MCG.

Friday night’s Western Bulldogs and Collingwood thriller attracted 81,036 through the gates, while 91,733 packed out the MCG on Saturday night to see Carlton victorious over Melbourne.

A total of 7.4m viewers tuned into Seven and Foxtel broadcasts across the two nights.

Across both Friday and Saturday, the Wildcard Finals were the most watched programs across all audiences on TV nationally.

Over 3.8m viewers tuned into Collingwood v Western Bulldogs on Friday night across all platforms, with the broadcast across the screens of Seven and Foxtel generating an average audience of 1.6m.

The match was the most viewed premiership fixture of any code across 2026 to date.

On Saturday night, over 3.5m viewers tuned into Melbourne v Carlton across the screens of Seven and Foxtel, generating an average audience of 1.5m. The match was the second most watched game of the season behind only Friday night’s Wildcard Final.

The crowd of 91,733 was also the highest crowd attendance for both Melbourne and Carlton for the 2026 season.

Across New South Wales and Queensland, audiences tuned in strongly across both Friday and Saturday nights. Viewership in these markets were up more than 50% on the 2026 season average.

The strong start to the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series follows the highest home-and-away attendance in VFL/AFL history, with 7,772,015 fans attending matches during the 2026 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said he was thrilled to see fans embrace finals footy.

“The opening weekend of finals delivered us the best of our game – the footy was unbelievably competitive and passionate fans turned out in record numbers.

“It was a fantastic way to kick off the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series, we’re looking forward to another four big matches this coming weekend and seeing more of our fans at the footy across September.”

Can't stop! Won't stop winning

[Beaussie]

[Beaussie]

Sunday 30 August

SUNDAY AFTERNOON NRL LIVE Nine 1,228,000 553,000 98,000

Sydney 158,000
Melbourne 13,000
Brisbane 103,000
Adelaide 5,000
Perth 20,000

SUNDAY AFTERNOON NRLW Nine 442,000 162,000 24,000

Sydney 39,000
Melbourne 7,000
Brisbane 40,000
Adelaide 3,000
Perth 3,000



SUNDAY FOOTY SHOW -AFL NINE 176,000

WOMEN’S AFL: SUNDAY AFTERNOON FOOTB… SEVEN 52,000

WOMEN’S AFL: SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SEVEN 49,000


SUNDAY EARLY AFTERNOON NRLW NINE 143,000

SUNDAY NIGHT NRLW NINE 47,000


PREMIER LEAGUE NINE 12,000

[leeroy*NRL*]

Sunday
Womens sport

#NRL W
Nine
Early Arvo 143k
Arvo 162k

#AFL W
Seven
Arvo 52k
Night 49k

[Beaussie]

Thursday 3 September



Fremantle Dockers vs Hawthorn Hawks

SEVEN’S AFL: THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,549,000 1,088,000 206,000






Canterbury/Bankstown Bulldogs vs Brisbane Broncos

THURSDAY NIGHT NRL LIVE Nine 1,436,000 596,000 135,000

[leeroy*NRL*]

FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL AFL FINALS Seven 1,080,000

FRIDAY NIGHT NRL LIVE Nine 757,000

[Beaussie]

Friday 4 September

Geelong Cats vs Carlton Blues

SEVEN’S AFL: FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,812,000 1,080,000 201,000


South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Sydney Roosters

FRIDAY NIGHT NRL LIVE Nine 1,740,000 757,000 157,000



Saturday 5 September

Sydney Swans vs Brisbane Lions

SEVEN’S AFL: SATURDAY AFTERNOON FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,063,000 786,000 122,000

Adelaide Crows vs Western Bulldogs

SEVEN’S AFL: SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,355,000 960,000 159,000




Cronulla Sharks vs Melbourne Storm

SATURDAY NIGHT NRL LIVE Nine 1,201,000 409,000 80,000

[Beaussie]

Sunday 6 September

Penrith Panthers vs Wests Tigers

SUNDAY AFTERNOON NRL LIVE Nine 1,193,000 549,000 103,000

Sydney 171,000
Melbourne 16,000
Brisbane 106,000
Perth 11,000

SUNDAY EARLY AFTERNOON NRLW NINE 100,000

Sydney 24,000
Brisbane 24,000


WOMEN’S AFL: SUNDAY AFTERNOON FOOTB… SEVEN 84,000

Melbourne 25,000
Adelaide 8,000
Perth 28,000


SANFL: FINALS - GAME 2 SEVEN 70,000

Adelaide 70,000


SUNDAY FOOTY SHOW - AFL NINE 167,000
SUNDAY FOOTY SHOW - NRL. NINE 117,000

[Beaussie]

2026 AFL Season Most Watched Ever On Kayo Sports
Posted on Tue Sept 1, 2026



The 2026 Toyota AFL season was the most watched season ever on DAZN’s Kayo SPORTS, recording consecutive years of audience growth since 2019.

Across the home and away season and inaugural Wildcard Round, fans streamed 8.4 billion minutes of AFL across Kayo Sports, BINGE, Foxtel Go, Foxtel Now, marking eight consecutive years of growth.

Collingwood continued to deliver some of the season’s biggest audiences, featuring in seven of Kayo SPORTS’ eight most-watched AFL matches of the season. Following Collingwood, the second and third most watched teams were Carlton and Hawthorn.

Other audience highlights from the season include:

• Collingwood’s matches against Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and Geelong - were the three most watched matches of the regular season.

• Kayo SPORTS delivered its highest-rating Gather Round ever, with Hawthorn's clash against the Western Bulldogs the highest rating Gather Round match ever on Kayo SPORTS.

• Round 12 was the most watched regular season round, as first placed Fremantle battled defending premiers Brisbane, Collingwood clashed with the Western Bulldogs and Carlton won a nailbiter against Geelong.

• Round 13, which delivered a historic weekend of close finishes with six games decided by eight points or less, was the second most watched round.

The AFL’s inaugural Wildcard Round saw four teams compete for the final two places in the top eight, delivering 123 million minutes streamed across the weekend. Highlights from the two games include:

• Friday night’s Western Bulldogs v Collingwood clash was the most watched Friday night AFL match on Kayo SPORTS of 2026.

• Saturday night’s blockbuster between Melbourne and Carlton was the most watched match between the two clubs on Kayo SPORTS

• The second-highest performing AFL game and Saturday night match of 2026, behind Hawthorn v Collingwood in Round 23.

• Wildcard Round was the most watched round of the season.

FOX SPORTS Managing Director Steve Crawley said: “This has been another outstanding season for the AFL, and to see consecutive years of streaming growth on Kayo SPORTS is a fantastic result that reflects how fans continue to embrace our coverage.

[leeroy*NRL*]

Interesting take on Ratings.

DAZN / KAYO has not mentioned reach or averages and has only stated Minutes, for the AFL Media release

in the NRL media release, they stated Minutes and Averages up 9% year on year.

AFL >>> ZILTCH

[Beaussie]

Wow, the AFL continues to dominate the tv ratings, beating the NFL and NRL.

A massive audience for the NFL on Friday morning too.


Friday 11 September



Fremantle Dockers vs Geelong Cats

SEVEN’S AFL: FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,655,000 1,202,000 240,000





NFL – MELBOURNE GAME Seven 2,118,000 938,000 155,000

NFL scores a touchdown in Melbourne

Historic 49ers v Rams clash reaches 2.19 million, delivers Seven’s biggest-ever NFL audience

The historic 2026 NFL Melbourne Game was a ratings triumph for the Seven Network yesterday, with the first-ever regular season NFL match played on Australian soil reaching 2.19 million Australians on Seven and 7plus Sport.

The blockbuster clash between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground drew a national total TV audience of 938,000, making it the most watched regular season NFL game ever on Seven.

Yesterday’s NFL pre game reached 1.21 million and had a national total TV audience of 526,000, while the post game reached 1.17 million and had 480,000 total TV viewers.

More than 155,000 people watched on 7plus Sport alone. That was a record number for a NFL game on the streaming platform, highlighting the growing appetite among Australian sports fans for the NFL in its first season under Seven’s new broadcast deal.

“The NFL has been building momentum in Australia for years, but seeing it translate into an audience of this size, on a free-to-air platform, at nine o’clock on a Friday morning, is a fantastic result. It sets us up perfectly for the rest of the season, and we can’t wait to keep building the NFL’s audience on Seven and 7plus Sport.”




South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Newcastle Knights

NRL LIVE FINAL SERIES EF1 Nine 1,769,000 937,000 240,000

[Beaussie]

Saturday 12 September

Brisbane Lions vs Adelaide Crows

SEVEN’S AFL: SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL FINALS Seven 2,496,000 975,000 168,000


New Zealand Warriors vs Dolphins

NRL LIVE FINAL SERIES QF1 Nine 1,549,000 706,000 178,000


Cronulla Sharks vs North Queensland Cowboys

NRL LIVE FINAL SERIES EF2 Nine 1,674,000 799,000 193,000


Gee it’s been a long time since we have heard from Terry in this thread. Seems to have went missing since the AFL started dominating the NRL week after week in the tv ratings. Hope you’re ok old mate?

[WookieReturns]

The 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series has put on another blockbuster weekend with sold-out stadiums and record viewership numbers dominating the sporting landscape across the weekend.

Across the two matches, the Seven and Kayo / Foxtel broadcasts reached 7.9 million Australians with an average total audience of 3.4 million.

[Editor note: This puts average AFL Friday audience at 1.8m, and we know it had 1.2m on Seven, leaving 600k on Fox/Kayo. This also leaves a total of 1.6m for Saturday, with about 600k for Fox/Kayo again.]

Friday night’s Fremantle vs Geelong attracted a sell-out crowd of 59,725, with Fremantle recording their highest ever home crowd and the second-highest AFL crowd at Optus Stadium outside of the 2021 Toyota AFL Grand Final.

Friday night’s match was the biggest viewership audience of the year with an average audience over 1.8 million and reach of over four million Australians, surpassing last weekend’s record Qualifying and Elimination Finals viewership.

On Saturday night 36,026 fans were at the sold-out Gabba to see reigning premiers Brisbane take on Adelaide marking the fourth highest AFL Finals attendance at the venue of all-time, and the highest crowd at the Gabba for the season.

Across Friday and Saturday, the AFL Finals were the #1 program in total TV across all people, also holding the position of the #1 program on Saturday for the Brisbane vs Adelaide Semi Final with a reach of over 3.8 million.

The 95,751 attendees across the Semi Finals brings the total Toyota AFL Finals Series attendance to date to 513,277 including six out of the eight matches being sell-out crowds.

The Semi Finals success follows a standout Qualifying and Elimination Finals weekend with 244,757 fans in attendance and a total of 15 million viewers across the four matches.

The strong start to the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series follows the highest home-and-away attendance in VFL/AFL history, with 7,772,015 fans attending matches during the 2026 Toyota AFL Premiership Season, with total season attendance to date at 8,285,292 fans.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said:

“The Semi Finals was another huge weekend of footy with two sold-out matches and millions of Australians continuing to tune in.

“Fans have been out in full force cheering on their sides and we can’t wait to see two massive prelim finals in Sydney and Melbourne next weekend as four clubs chase their place for Premiership glory.”