This article has a graph that shows in 1995 the AFL had 1.8m unique spectators, or 13.3% of the population, and last year they boasted a massive 2.8m unique spectators, an increase of 2.9% of the population. =D>
Meanwhile the NRL in 1995 had 1.4m unique spectators, at 10.4% of the population. It only increased to 1.5m viewers in 2012 which is 8.9% of the population. This is a decrease of 1.5% of the population!
AFL growing in popularity by 2.9% of the population, or an extra 1 million people. The NRL declining in spectators by 1.5% of the population
